It's OK to Have Feelings

October 26, 2021

It's OK to Have Feelings

It's OK to Have Feelings

by Aileen Pound and Michaela Robertson Keane

Children's Book

It's OK to have feelings.

Everyone has feelings. Happy, sad, and angry are feelings we all have felt at one time or another. As you grow up, you start to feel other feelings. Can you guess what some of them might be?

What happens to our bodies when we start to feel these feelings? When you're happy, you feel like the sky is blue, the sun is out and you can see unicorns and rainbows. Your smile is bigger, and your eyes have a sparkle in them. What happens to your body when it's a feeling you've never felt before?

Come along and join in with all the other children learning how to identify feelings and what happens to their bodies when they feel those feelings.

Remember, it's OK to have feelings!

Excerpt:

Have you ever felt scared ? Perhaps you’ve seen

something scary on T.V. Maybe you have to go to the

doctor’s office for an injection you know is going to hurt.

It’s not nice to feel scared, is it? Your body tenses,

your heart races, and your eyes widen like saucers.

Just remember, though...

It’s OK to have feelings; this feeling of being

scared will pass (and usually rather quickly).

Have you ever been talking to a friend and they just won’t listen?

Has someone ever kept following you in the playground even when

you’ve asked them to stop? You start to glare, your voice becomes

gruff, and your face becomes warm. You are feeling angry .

Just remember, though...

It’s OK to have feelings. It’s ok to feel angry. In fact, it’s

normal to have this feeling. Your anger will go away.

Tomorrow is another day.

About the Author

Aileen Pound and Michaela Robertson Keane are a mother and daughter team.

Michaela, who is six, is Aileen's only child, and they spend a lot of time doing lots of fun things together: going on adventures, creating and being imaginative at home. So last year, when they were housebound during COVID, they started talking a lot about feelings, especially ones that Michaela had never felt before. So they decided to write a book together to help other children with their feelings.

Aileen and Michaela spent a long time talking about what feelings to put in the book, and Michaela provided Aileen all the examples that are in the book. As with everything, they wrote this book together, and Michaela had a very clear image of how she wanted the illustrations to look.

Q&A With the Author:

When did you first consider yourself to be a writer?

I’ve always loved writing; at school, my favourite subjects were English and Literature, as I got older I would keep a diary on and off throughout the years. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I started writing a blog about impending motherhood. Since then, I have created a new blog, my current one, called Mum 2 One – basically about being a mother to an only child. I always thought that I wanted to write something, either a children’s book or a fictional novel using stories from my life throughout the years. About five years ago, I started writing a different children’s book, and at present, it is still sitting on my laptop waiting to say hello to the world. When I decided to write this book with my daughter, it was the first time I dared to call myself a writer or admit that I would love to write another book.

What advice do you have for a new writer?

One piece of advice I would give a new writer is to write down all their ideas, no matter how silly they may seem. You never know where a good story can come from, an idea that you have may sit there for weeks, months or years, and then all of a sudden, inspiration strikes and voila, a story is born.

I would also say not to have too many people to read your first draft or even your second; the more people who read it, the more you leave yourself open for confusion. One person will say one thing, and another will say something else; the only person’s opinion that matters is your own.

What is the easiest part of the writing process for you?

Whether it be my blog or the book, the easiest part of the writing process is the actual writing of the story. I can find it very hard to come up with ideas, so once I have an idea in mind, I usually find it relatively easy to write the story.

What is your favourite part of this story?

My favourite part of this story was writing it with my daughter. I loved talking to her about the different feelings, and I loved her telling me about the various examples of the feelings, such as anger or embarrassment. I loved that she was able to communicate with me her understanding of the examples of the feelings and how she understood that feeling in relation to her. For example, when we were speaking about what happens to your body when you are angry, Michaela said her face gets warm when she feels angry, and her voice changes. From there, she said it makes her mad when someone is following her at school, and she asks them to stop following her, and they don’t. Being able to connect with Michaela like this was amazing, and it made the book all the more fun to write.

Which Character was the most fun to write about? Why?

The best feeling to write about was feeling embarrassed. I laughed when Michaela used the examples of her feeling embarrassed when I dance around the shops or give her a kiss at school in front of friends. But, it was the most fun because I could get a glimpse into her head and how she views things.

Which Character was the hardest to write about? Why?

The hardest feeling to write about was feeling sad. For me, it was the hardest because I love children, and I hate to think of any child feeling sad. However, as a mother, you constantly believe that it is your job to make sure your child is happy, so thinking of them as sad breaks your heart.

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GIVEAWAY

Aileen Pound and Michaela Robertson Keane will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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