I’m a big fan of books which helps children recognise and understand their feelings and this one does a fantastic job of showing how moods can affect you and the people around you.
The main character in this story is called Ed and he is in a bad mood. He’s been in bad moods before but not like this one. It starts off as something tiny, but instead of addressing the way that he feels he just ignores it, stares at the ground and pushes on through until his mood becomes worse. His feelings take hold and little Ed is no longer in control of his emotions. The bad mood takes over and starts to affect the people around him. Eventually the bad mood is so big that it affects the whole town.
Can Ed regain control of his emotions, and if so will he learn how to stop this from happening again?
This is a beautifully written story which uses clever illustrations to explore the core themes. At the start of the book, when the mood takes hold, Ed is sweeping some autumn leaves. As the mood gets worse he continues to sweep, gathering up dogs, cats, bicycles and eventually even cars, buses and buildings. Deep down he knows he should stop sweeping but he doesn’t know how to. It’s a fantastic metaphor which makes it really easy for children to understand how quickly things can snowball if you sweep your emotions under the carpet.
This is a deep, but ultimately uplifting, book and the autumnal illustrations are stunning.
Buy from Bookshop.org and support independent bookshops: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/155/9781405283779
Buy from Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2SobkGB
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