Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler
Categories
Children’s picture books

MIXED FEELINGS

Liana Finck

From acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck comes a validating and heartfelt feelings book like none other.

This exploration of mixed and wide-ranging emotions is presented in illustrated vignettes and beautifully articulate text. Each spread portrays a specific scenario involving a child and a phrase that reminds readers (young and old) that not all feelings can be summed up in a single word, or occur singularly. The text "Mostly happy but a little sad" accompanies a child leaving for the beach, but waving goodbye to his dog. "Like I'm trying hard to have fun" shows a child at a loud party, covering their ears. In her trademark style and funny-because-it's-real approach, Finck has created a deeply insightful book on feelings that validates the way we all experience the world. Liana Finck is the author of Let There Be Light, Passing for Human, Excuse Me, and You Broke It! and is a regular contributor to the New Yorker. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and a Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists. She has had artist residencies with MacDowell, Yaddo, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Willapa Bay. She has a wide and dedicated fan base, with nearly 600k followers on Instagram alone.

Available products
Book Published 2025-01-21 by Rise x Penguin Workshop

Comments

Sure, it's possible to experience unbridled enthusiasm, raw anger, and absolute bliss. But many emotions, Finck (You Broke It!) smartly asserts through minimal text and a series of squiggly-inked, spot-colored vignettes, are a mixed bag. On an opening page, one child is "mostly happy" to be heading out for what looks like a beach day, "but a little sad" about leaving the family dog behind. Another kid feels "stuck inside" as a storm rages outdoors, but is also "getting cozy" thanks to a couch pillow fort. Yet another is "mad at so many things" (people, animals, a sweater, and even a chair)"and maybe also a little bit hungry." Some spreads play off the central premise by focusing on the jumble of fleeting feelings we all experience, including "just in the mood to pretend to be a horse" and a fervent "like no one ever listens to me." Life, the book assures, is like that: even when one may not "know the words" for a feeling, emotions come and go and blend together. But each one is valid, and discerning them can be part of the experience.

How do you feel? It's complicated! Going beyond the basics, several racially diverse children discuss the many emotions they experience. A youngster is "mostly happy" to be going on vacation but "a little sad" at having to leave the family dog behind. Another child feels "forgotten-about," "like the whole world is against me," when a caregiver ignores the little one to chat with a friend; the child's tears linger even after the initial upset fades. Finck also explores how it feels to be in the very specific mood to playact as a horse and how being hangry can amplify other negative emotions. Both the text and the deliberately wonky yet controlled cartoon artwork are dryly humorous.But Finck carefully pays tribute to the depth and breadth of youngsters' emotions, [making] for an endearing read. Many little ones will emerge empowered to express their complicated yet universal feelings in equally intricate ways, while adults will be gently reminded of the complexity of children's inner lives, even when they don't yet have the vocabulary to communicate it. A nuanced take on children's emotions.