Yesterday I Had the Blues Book

Summary: This book is about a boy who had a bad day that day before and he describes this as the blues. The next day when he is feeling better, he says has the greens. The book continues and he goes through how different people have different colors to describe their emotions. For example, his greens are shown to represent happiness whereas when he talks about his grandma's happiness he describes it as the yellows. Throughout the whole book, he goes through his neighborhood and house talking about how the colors describe however that particular person is feeling. So when he is talking to his mom she says she has the reds and that indicates to him not to mess with her because the emotion she is feeling is anger. In the end, he says that being in a family like his makes him feel golden.

Themes: The theme of this book is how to cope with different emotions and how you can express them in a variety of different ways. This also represents how we can look at the world in a new perspective based on how they respond when we ask them how they are feeling.

Personal Response: I like this book because it was simple to understand the premise and can be used in a way to understand one's emotions and it lets the reader know it is okay to feel a different emotion than what everyone around you is feeling. This is important because I feel like the world gets wrapped up in how everyone needs to be happy all the time and are told not to show the ugly emotions that we have inside of us when in fact it is essential to our mental health to be able to express these kinds of feelings even if they are considered taboo.

Recommendation: I would use this book in probably Pre-K through 3rd grade because after 3rd grade this book may seem too simplistic for their age level. I would use it to show kids that it okay for them to feel what they are feeling and show them that they should able express those emotions in a comfortable. I would also go with the idea of using color to possibly create a chart where they can put clothespins on a color based on how they are feeling so I can evaluate for the day who I may need to check up on periodically. This book is overall a good way to show emotions simply because colors are easy to understand.