A lovely example of a first picture book, Nicola Smee’s appealing illustrations shows a little boy’s many facial expressions as the simple story progresses. The boy ‘loves his ball’ (happy face), meets a bear (surprised face) who takes his ball (sad and cross faces). The boy taunts the bear (naughty face), who then returns with other bears (worried and frightened faces), but in the end they all play ball together (happy face again!). The final double page has a space to stick a picture of your own face, and a (safe) mirror to make funny faces in. Children may enjoy copying the expressions they see in the book.
Categories: Aggression & Tantrums, Friendship & Getting Along
Funny Face
A good starting point to chat to a very young child about emotions, for example, how they feel during a tantrum.
Author: Nicola Smee
Illustrator: Nicola Smee
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Things we liked: Sturdily constructed book with safe rounded corners.