Sometimes I Cry

by Jess Townes, Daniel Miyares (Illustrator)

Overview

From Jess Townes with illustrations by Daniel Miyares, this poignant picture book deftly tackles the wide array of emotions experienced in childhood, and especially reminding readers that there’s nothing wrong with crying.

Sometimes I cry
. . . when I’m angry.
. . . when I’m scared.
. . . when I’m happy.

There are all sorts of feelings that can make us cry—from disappointment to joy, from grief to love. Sometimes I Cry offers a gentle and necessary affirmation of the emotional complexity of growing up. Powerful, poignant, and universally relevant, it is a triumph for readers of any age.

Sometimes I cry.
And that’s okay.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374308254
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	09/26/2023
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	365,909
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 11.25(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jess Townes is the author of Spellbound, illustrated by Jennifer Harney, and Groundhog Gets It Wrong, illustrated by Nicole Miles. She currently works as a bookseller at Main Street Books in St. Charles, Missouri. Jess lives outside St. Louis with her family.

Daniel Miyares is a critically acclaimed author and illustrator of picture books, including Big and Small and In-Between by Carter Higgins, Come Next Season by Kim Norman, and Float. Daniel lives in Lenexa, Kansas, with his family.

Editorial Reviews

07/24/2023

A tan-skinned, brown-haired child who first appears in a T-shirt and shorts describes, over several multi-page sequences, their experience of crying, including emotional reactions, physical sensations, and tear-jerking scenarios. Sometimes physical pain summons tears, like a fall from a bike, painted in boldly stroked, warm-hued moment-by-moment vignettes by Miyares (Nell Plants a Tree): “Blood trickles down my knee/ And it stings./ And the sting hurts my eyes/ And I cry.” A tickle match with a parent ends in tearful laughter for both. Frustration, too, brings tears, as when a child kicks “my very best” origami frog to a friend: “My whole body is a volcano/ That rumbles and roars...// And I erupt// With red-hot lava tears/ That I cry.” Failure, fear, joy, and shared grief (the child’s grandfather weeps tears, “And I catch them like you catch a cold/ And we cry”) are all times that people may tear up. And that’s okay, Townes (Spellbound) reassures readers, supplying language to describe experiences and feelings in this tightly focused resource that examines how “when I let my tears out/ My feelings fit perfectly inside my body.” Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Stephanie Fretwell-Hill, Red Fox Literary. Illustrator’s agency: Studio Goodwin Sturges. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"[A] nuanced tale that normalizes crying and makes clear that it is a part of life...Townes’ honest and resonant prose grounds readers in the protagonist’s life and offers superb opportunities for discussion about social-emotional development. With stirring echoes of Ezra Jack Keats in palette and line, Miyares’ illustrations are immersive." —Kirkus, starred review

"Childhood is full of emotional ups and downs, and in this beautifully illustrated story, readers follow a boy through a series of life events and the emotions they raise. These universal experiences and the tearful reactions they produce will resonate with readers of all ages...Highly effective for communicating the appropriateness of tearful expressions, this title will be useful in social-emotional learning experiences for starting conversations about our human ­reactions to being alive." —School Library Journal, starred review

"For young readers just beginning to identify and grapple with complex emotions, this picture book is a cozy reassurance that it’s okay to cry and could also serve as a conversation starter for older kids, especially boys, to consider how they process their feelings." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review

"Townes reassures readers, supplying language to describe experiences and feelings in this tightly focused resource that examines how 'when I let my tears out/ My feelings fit perfectly inside my body.'" —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2023

PreS-Gr 4—Childhood is full of emotional ups and downs, and in this beautifully illustrated story, readers follow a boy through a series of life events and the emotions they raise. These universal experiences and the tearful reactions they produce will resonate with readers of all ages. While crying is a natural human response, it is a challenging experience, especially for boys, due to cultural taboos in some communities. This title shows a young boy and his father wrestling and laughing so hard that tears come out. The young boy also cries with his grandfather as they remember Grandma. The illustrations, starting with the cover showing eight different tearful expressions of the boy, capture the range of emotions that can produce tears and offer readers an emotional vocabulary through which they can express their own tearful episodes. In one, it is the love he feels for his baby sister that makes him well up. In another instance, the narration explains that with the release of tears, his emotions can fit in him again. VERDICT Highly effective for communicating the appropriateness of tearful expressions, this title will be useful in social-emotional learning experiences for starting conversations about our human reactions to being alive.—John Scott

School Library Journal

★ 2023-06-21
All kinds of emotions can provoke tears.

A beige-skinned, dark-haired child zooms down a hill on a bicycle, thrilled by the high speed, but crashes after riding over a small rock. Nursing a bloody knee, the protagonist bursts into tears. Thus begins a sensitive, nuanced tale that normalizes crying and makes clear that it is a part of life. The young narrator tears up from joy while playing with Dad and laughing deep belly laughs, from rage when another kid crushes the protagonist’s origami frog, from shame at letting down the team and losing a baseball game, from fear of the dark, even from seeing Grandpa’s grief and love for Grandma, who’s deceased. Displaying an age-appropriate range of emotions and a profound maturity, the empathetic youngster comes to feel at home with these complicated feelings. Townes’ honest and resonant prose grounds readers in the protagonist’s life and offers superb opportunities for discussion about social-emotional development. With stirring echoes of Ezra Jack Keats in palette and line, Miyares’ illustrations are immersive without being overwhelming. Each scene presents a tapestry of saturated hues and tones—reds, blues, yellows—that convey the way this child experiences the world. A repeated motif of teardrops, appearing in different colors and sizes, further evokes the complexity of emotions. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

The perfect offering for children who want to understand why they cry. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews