In this companion to kid-lit hit Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox, author Danielle Daniel taps into children’s natural abilities to make creative connections between their inner worlds and what they observe and perceive around them. Stand-alone, meditative vignettes transport the reader from the ocean’s floor to the peaks of mountains. There are some fresh lines: “Sometimes I feel like the sky, open and everlasting. I breathe in and out into the blue, feeling peace within me.” And some predictable comparisons: “Sometimes I feel like the sun, bright and early rising.” 

Sometimes I Feel like a River
Danielle Daniel
Illustrated by Joseé Bisaillon

Groundwood Books
$18.99
cloth
32pp
9781773066950

A talented illustrator herself, Daniel has partnered with Josée Bisaillon (The Snow Knows) on this project. In Bisaillon’s collages, the kids are quirky (reminiscent of Michael Martchenko’s early work with Robert Munsch), and nature is beautiful.

Sometimes I Feel Like a River establishes Daniel as a leading author in the mindfulness genre, a growing group of titles focused on helping kids understand their emotions and fall in love with their environments. In a world threatened by climate change and with kids spending more time on screens after three pandemic years, we should probably all take Daniel’s advice and take “a mindful walk or roll under the beautiful sky.”mRb