Sometimes I Cry

With stirring echoes of Ezra Jack Keats in palette and line, Miyares' illustrations are immersive.

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.)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

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

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

[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

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