The adorable little girl in the book is in a thoroughly bad mood as she walks home - but why? What causes a bad mood, what makes us scared, happy, grumpy, angry? What's with all these durned feelings and how do we make them go away (or, in the case of nice ones, stick around a while?)
In Shinsuke's trademark comic style each busy panel spread is chock full of detail and humour, as we quite literally delve into the girl's head to find out what's going on.
We've seen a ton of 'emotions' books - that quite often miss a trick of being engaging enough or interesting enough for kids to pay attention to, but that's not a problem here - as the jaunty story allows the little girl's character to shine through, and the zany antics of her actual (and imaginary) character compadres adds up to one of the most original and engaging picture books we've seen since...well since "Can I build Another Me?"
Sum this book up in a sentence: Sheer and utter brilliance from one of the most talented creatives working in picture books today, a real treat on every level imagineable and a thoroughly deep dive into what makes us tick.
"Why do I feel Like This?" by Shinsuke Yoshitake is out now, published by Thames and Hudson (kindly supplied for review).