Sometimes I grumblesquinch

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Title:

Sometimes I grumblesquinch

Author:

Vail, Rachel, author.

Yum, Hyewon, illustrator.

Summary:

Katie Honors is a really nice kid. But there’s one little secret that sometimes makes her feel not-so-nice deep inside: her little brother, Chuck. Katie loves her brother and works hard to be the perfect big sister but it can be hard. Chuck can sometimes be just so icky and messy. Sometimes it makes Katie secretly wish she had a trampoline or a treehouse or a giraffe instead of a brother. When all these emotions bubble up to the surface, Katie can no longer grumblesquinch them down. She explodes, but she also learns an important lesson: that there’s room for ALL of her feelings, even the scary ones. -- Amazon.

General Note:

"A big feelings book."

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 27 cm.

Genre:

Picture books.

Subject Term:

Emotions -- Juvenile fiction.

Brothers -- Juvenile fiction.

Anger -- Juvenile fiction.

Author(s):

Yum, Hyewon,

Publisher:

Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.,

Publication Date:

2022

ISBN:

9781338751161

Publication Information:

New York : Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., 2022.

Call Number:

P VAIL

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003656330	New Picture Books	VAIL	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A sweet and touching exploration of the scariness of BIG feelings and overcoming the pressures to do everything "just right," in this companion title to bestselling picture book Sometimes I'm Bombaloo .

Katie Honors is a really nice kid. But there's one little secret that sometimes makes her feel not-so-nice deep inside: her little brother, Chuck. Katie loves her brother and works hard to be the perfect big sister but it can be hard. Chuck can sometimes be just so icky and messy. Sometimes it makes Katie secretly wish she had a trampoline or a treehouse or a giraffe instead of a brother. When all these emotions bubble up to the surface, Katie can no longer grumblesquinch them down. She explodes, but she also learns an important lesson: that there's room for ALL of her feelings, even the scary ones.

Sometimes I Grumblesquinch masterfully explores the pressure children often feel to be perfect all the time and helps them realize that it's okay to share frustrating, and at times, not-so-nice thoughts and seek comfort from adults to help them manage those feelings. This story explores key social emotional skills that kids need to navigate complicated feelings, and will live alongside bestsellers like When Sophie Gets Really Really Angry and How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad . Once again, Rachel Vail taps into universal childhood experiences that are often left unexplored, and does so with sensitivity, humor, and respect for the wide range of emotions kids face today.

Author Notes

Rachel Vail, born on July 25, 1966 in Manhattan. She is an author of children's and young adult books. She grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and is a graduate of Georgetown University. Her debut novel Wonder won an Editor's Choice award from Booklist in 1991, and in 1992 her second novel, Do-Over, won that award also. She has authored several series which include Friendship Ring, Mama Rex and T, If We Kiss, and Avery Sisters Trilogy.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (1)

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 2--Self-described "really nice kid" Katie Honors always aims to please. Polite, well-behaved, and flexible, she earns compliments from her parents: "Katie is such a pleasure." The reality beneath this veneer of perfection, of course, is a range of emotions, positive and negative. Her toddler brother Chuck has a knack for provoking her in small ways that her mother and father either overlook or minimize with platitudes: "You don't mind, do you?" and "Chuck loves you!" Since her appearance as the protagonist of Vail's Sometimes I'm Bombaloo, Katie has learned to suppress her feelings by "grumblesquinching," her idiosyncratic term for bottling up anger and sadness inside. After her pent-up frustration finally explodes in the form of a tantrum, she fears that she has irreparably damaged her parents' opinion of her. To her relief, her mother responds not with judgment but with warm understanding--she is accepted, anger and all. Vail creates a strikingly honest portrait of family relationships, sensitively probing the all-too-common adult habit of using praise to avoid uncomfortable but necessary emotional dialogue. Yum's bright, expressive colored pencil drawings cleverly externalize the progression of Katie's emotional response: as she loses her composure, strands of her hair begin to float up into sinister tentacles, and the image on her shirt subtly shifts from a rainbow to a storm cloud. VERDICT This tender, insightful exploration of childhood emotion and respectful parenting is an important purchase for all collections.--Jonah Dragan