A blue kind of day by rachel tomlinson

A Blue Kind of Day
Written by Rachel Tomlinson
Illustrated by Tori-Jay Mordey
Puffin 2022

Registered psychologist, Rachel Tomlinson, has written an endearing picture story book to help children access themes of depression and sadness. For a young person who experiences a blue day or knows someone who does, this book helps them to understand these feelings as messages to their body.

Through this engaging story and Tori-Jay Mordey’s expressive illustrations, we follow a moment in young Coen’s life. Coen is struggling with some difficult emotions and these translate to different physical symptoms such as heaviness. Coen’s family all try to come up with solutions to help him move beyond his sad feelings, however, Tomlinson shows us that feelings can’t be rushed. Eventually the family curl up with Coen and wait until he is ready, illustrating compassion and sympathy for his journey.

As well as an excellent social emotional text, Tomlinson writes an elegant tale with a variety of similes, metaphors and a vivid array of adjectives. It would be an excellent text to accompany a word choice or sentence fluency writing focus. As a reading mentor text, the facial expressions within the illustrations, the symbolism of the words and actions, all lean towards a useful companion for teaching inference and connections.
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Tomlinson, who has also written ‘Teaching kids to be kind’, has provided teachers and caregivers a fabulous resource that is worthy of a place on the bookshelf.