Berta's Boxes

by Dario Alvisi, Amélie Graux (Illustrator)

Overview

Berta is tidy, never throws tantrums, and never cries. Whenever she feels overwhelmed, she just opens one of her boxes of emotions and shuts in her tears, fear, and anger. But what would happen if one day she lost control? Berta discovers that emotions should be felt and not locked up. Berta’s Boxes is a wonderful story about dealing with emotions and learning to understand and express your feelings. También disponible en español. (Also available in Spanish.)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788418133190
Publisher:	NubeOcho
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	11.50(w) x 9.75(h) x (d)
Lexile:	AD620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Dario Alvisi was born in Busto Arsizio (Italy) and graduated in Set Design from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Together with his sister Ruth, he has run the children’s bookstore Dondolibro since 2009.

Amélie Graux is an internationally renowned artist. She has illustrated several books with publishers such as Gallimard, Flammarion, Milan, Nathan, Didier Jeunesse, Little Urban, and NubeOcho.

Editorial Reviews

This book is wonderful. It is full of emotion even just through the words and pictures. The pictures are cartoon drawings of Berta, her family and friends. The book is a great tool for having a conversation with children about building coping skills and how to cope when we have bad days. This is advice that can definitely be passed on to the adult reading the book as well.—Youth Services Book Review

From the Publisher

2021-05-05
What should a child do with strong feelings?

Years ago, Molly Bang modeled a child finding peace in nature in When Sophie Gets Angry—Really, Really Angry… (1999), but some readers have complained that Sophie was running away from her problems. More recently, in The Color Monster (2018), Anna Llenas recommended sorting emotions into jars of different colors. Italian bookseller Alvisi’s protagonist Berta follows that latter path. She tidies up regularly, sorts her toys by color, and uses red, yellow, green, and blue boxes to contain her strong feelings. Grown-ups admire her good behavior. But that technique is not enough when someone at school calls her a “red gloop monstreepy” and adults in her life are too distracted to offer sympathy. She tries to calm down with a puzzle, but a missing piece is the last straw. In a frenzy, she mixes all her puzzles together into one—creating a terrible and wonderful monstreepy of her own. In what may be something of a leap for a young audience, she changes her ways, loosens up, and learns to talk about her feelings instead of putting them in boxes. When she’s upset, she can draw, trace, cut, and glue some “magnificent monsters.” Making art helps. Graux depicts Berta and her parents as White, but there are some background characters of color; her color choices support Berta’s changing moods. Ross’ translation is smooth, but it’s unclear whether that is from the original Italian or the Madrid-based publisher’s co-publishing Spanish edition, Las cajas de Berta.

Another offering for the emotional intelligence shelf. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews