"Helping children understand their own and other people’s feelings is a vital building block for building a more empathetic society. This lovely book sensitively explores the emotion of sadness, and the importance of accepting it. For anyone living or working with children, It’s a great springboard for sharing how to handle feelings." -- Miranda McKearney OBE ― EmpathyLab
"Both gentle and profound, Eland's assured debut takes a poignant look at a difficult emotion." -- Fiona Noble ― The Bookseller
"Packs an emotional punch, showing our littlest readers ways to acknowledge and manage sadness." ― Sunday Independent, Best Books of 2019
"This poignant picture book helps children to recognise and understand difficult emotions... A contemplative and ultimately uplifting tale, which will be a welcome addition to any home or school bookshelf." ― BookTrust
About the Author
Eva Eland is an award-winning author and illustrator with an MA with distinction in children’s book illustration from the Cambridge School of Art. She has also studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her first picture book, When Sadness Comes to Call, won the Klaus Flugge prize and the V&A Award. Her books have also been longlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award and shortlisted for the World Illustration Awards. Eva grew up in Delft, Netherlands, and now lives in Amsterdam with her husband and baby girl.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we do not use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
A good, simple book to talk about emotions with kids. It helps put words to what sadness feels like to a small child. We enjoy reading the book over and over and picking out different emotions to use in addition to sadness.
I loved this book! It's well written and a great lesson on allowing all feelings that arrive at your door to stay. Don't ignore them, see the message it has for you. All feelings are valuable and important!
5.0 out of 5 starsThe illustrations are beautiful and invite the reader into the story
5 February 2020 - Published on Amazon.com
When Sadness Comes to Call is the first book by Eva Eland in her Big Emotions series. The book teaches young children that sometimes people get sad, even for no apparent reason, and that it is natural to feel that way.
In the story, we meet sadness who is shown as being an aqua green coloured large round jellylike person with slumped shoulders and a down-turned mouth. He arrives at the door of a small child who doesn’t know what to do about the sadness.
The plot then shows that you should try to make friends with sadness and maybe do some activities to help it such as listen to music or play outside.
The book has very few words but they leave a powerful message not only for children but I think for adults too, as sometimes we forget that sadness can just come from no-where and stick around for a while.
The illustrations are beautiful and invite the reader into the story. When Sadness Comes to Call would make an amazing bedtime read or even a class read. I can also see it being the start of a conversation about emotions and how they work and why they happen, so be prepared for some tough, but vital questions.
Book Reviewed on Whispering Stories Book Blog *I received a free copy of this book, which I voluntarily reviewed