posted on 01 Jul 2025

Feel Your Happy by Emily Coxhead

If you are looking to focus on positives in these troubled times, this might bring a smile to your face. It is the second book featuring a friendly sloth by this author/ illustrator that encourages children to work with the people they love to be happy. This time the author provides plenty of practical tips to use the five senses to help achieve this. 

The upbeat message is obvious from the opening pages that shows the smiling sloth as he sits beneath a bold rainbow set against a vibrant yellow sky. The following pages are each saturated with an equally strong background colour as we learn about some pleasing experiences. But children also need to learn how to cope with some challenging sensory experiences like loud noises that can be painful to hear, unfamiliar smells that can make new situations feel a bit scary and clothing fabrics that feel so scratchy and uncomfortable that they distract from being able to get on with the day. 

I know a few children who really struggle with sensory issues to the extent that this interferes with enjoying daily life. This varies between individual children and can be very difficult to resolve, so a book like this can contribute to making them feel more confident in creating some solutions. At the same time, it can make other children more aware of these difficulties and to think of ways to help.  Learning to articulate and control angry feelings is also challenging for some children, especially when witnessed by others. This rage can be very frightening and is well expressed by the angry looking, stomping sloth as he shouts with jagged black lines against a red background. Finding ways to help children to de-escalate and regain calm control is something that many adults will be familiar with. 

I can see how teachers might use this book as a starting point to explore what makes children feel happy and what worries them too. I am sure that they would enjoy drawing and painting their own pictures inspired by the illustrations.  The concluding pages reassure readers that the world is experienced differently by individuals and that is fine:

‘Just remember to be proud, be yourself and …

FEEL YOUR HAPPY!’

This feel-good, colourful picture book is published by Walker Books and should be available to buy from your local independent bookshop, who will be able to order if not already on their shelves.    

 Karen Argent 

July 2025