Title: Your Happy Heart: How Helping Others Helps You, Too
Author: Amie Dean
Artist: Susan Keeter
Genre: Children's / Self Esteem
Year Published: 2018
Year Read: 2019
Publisher: National Center for Youth Issues
Source: Physical Copy Received from Publisher
Content Rating: Ages 4 + (Nothing Objectionable)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
I would like to thank the National Center for Youth Issues for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I just love reading books that are given to me
by the National Center for
Youth Issues since they are always
publishing fantastic children’s books that deal with social issues that small
children will have to face. So, I just
recently got my copy of “Your Happy Heart: How Helping Others Helps You, Too” by Amie Dean,
along with artwork by Susan Keeter and
this book was an absolute treat to read through!
Javon, a young boy who is in the fifth grade, is happy
that he has been chosen to become a Book Buddy to a young kindergartner named
Richard. But unfortunately, Richard seems to have problems communicating with
Javon as Richard would not say anything to Javon and would just sit there and
sulk. It was then that Javon remembered how
he acted when he used to be in Ms. Sammons’ class. He also had trouble communicating with other
kids and often hit them and Ms. Sammons had to put him in the Zen Zone to calm
down. So, Javon decided to use his past
experiences to help connect more with Richard and even teach him about writing
down some good things about himself on a piece of paper.
Will
Javon be able to get through to Richard?
Read
this book to find out!
Wow! Another
fantastic book from the National Center
for Youth Issues! Amie Dean has done
a fantastic job at writing this book! I always enjoyed reading children’s books
that help children try to deal with their anger issues and trying to find
activities that would make them happy. I
loved the way that Amie Dean wrote
Javon and Richard’s relationship with each other as it shows that Javon is
willing to do whatever it takes to make Richard happy, while also finding out
what made Richard so upset towards other people. It shows how much Javon himself has matured
as a person as he uses the experiences he had when he was in kindergarten in
order to understand Richard better. Susan Keeter’s artwork is gorgeous to
look at as all the characters and backgrounds are so realistic. However, even though I think that the
characters’ eyes look a bit too big for their heads, the artwork overall really
captures the inspiration that the characters give to each other.
This is a small nitpick, but I am curious about why
Richard is so upset about talking to other people. The book does not really
explain about why Richard is having a hard time talking to other people and
what kind of problems he has at either home or at school that would make him so
antisocial. It would have been nice if
the book had explained more about Richard’s situation and why he acts so
antisocial since it would help children have a better understanding about
Richard’s situation and how they can deal with their own anger issues.
Overall, “Your
Happy Heart” is a truly amazing book about how to deal with anger issues
and is definitely a book worth reading for young children! I would recommend this book to children ages
four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.
