2023
WISE Score
A rhyming toolkit that helps preschoolers treat their big emotions like a box of crayons—useful, colorful, and temporary.
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If you are currently living with a tiny human who oscillates between 'pure joy' and 'total meltdown' in the span of a cereal bowl, this book is a useful tool. It doesn't lecture; it just gives them a vocabulary.
It’s not high literature, but it’s effective. Use it as a 'cool down' book after a rough afternoon rather than a high-energy bedtime story. It’s the kind of book that works best when you actually refer back to it during a real-life emotional storm.
Perfect for the 3-to-6 crowd. They are old enough to understand the color metaphors but young enough to still be surprised that 'sad' is allowed to exist. Most 7-year-olds might find the rhyming a bit babyish.
It centers on emotional health, validating every emotion without labeling them as 'bad.' It models self-compassion and patience.
The crayon metaphor is a solid, visual way to explain abstract concepts to a 4-year-old, though it follows a fairly standard social-emotional learning (SEL) template.
Completely safe. It’s a rhyming picture book designed to help kids regulate, with zero surprises or inappropriate themes.
High utility for parents in the thick of the 'tantrum years.' It gives kids a concrete vocabulary for what’s happening inside their heads.
Becky Cummings’ The Magic of Me series has carved out a niche by taking heavy concepts like manifestation and emotional regulation and distilling them into preschool-friendly rhymes. In My Magical Feelings, the focus is squarely on naming and taming. This is a direct application of the 'Name it to Tame it' strategy popularized by Dr. Dan Siegel, and it’s one of the most effective tools for early childhood development.
Kids at this age are very literal. Telling them they are 'anxious' or 'frustrated' often means nothing. But telling them that a feeling is like a crayon—something they can hold, use, and then put back in the box—is brilliant. It separates the child from the emotion. They aren't 'a bad kid'; they just have a 'red' feeling right now. This distinction is huge for a child’s self-image.
This isn't Where the Wild Things Are. It’s a functional book. You keep it on the shelf next to The Color Monster or In My Heart. It’s best used as a preventative measure—reading it when things are calm so that when the storm hits, you have a shared language to use. If your kid is already a fan of the series, this is a consistent addition. If you're new to it, this is probably the most practical volume of the bunch.
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