Kid’s Corner: I Know Curious by Lindsay N. Giroux

#IKnowCurious #NetGalley

My thoughts:

This book is one that an adult and child can (and should) share. It could lead to helpful discussion. In this short title, the author invites children to be curious about their emotions and to learn how to identify them.

She encourages children to name emotions and to think of when they may have felt them. She also suggests keeping a “detective” notebook in which to keep track.

Recognizing, as the child does here, what boredom looks like, they become more able to think of how to respond. Several different emotions are depicted in these pages including curious, excited, confused and more. I like that the author observes that emotions change over the course of the day.

Learning to recognize and regulate emotions is a helpful skill that will last a lifetime. Through this cheerfully illustrated title, children will be encouraged to do this.

The book also comes with a helpful note to the adult in a child’s life.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Free Spirit Publishing for this title. All thoughts are my own.

Pub date: 09 December 2025

About the book:

From the publisher

Teach children to recognize curiosity, boredom, and confusion

In I Know Curious, a young feelings detective looks for clues to identify curiosity, boredom, and confusion in himself and others. The boy feels bored sitting in a theater and waiting for a movie to start. He feels confused when the show starts because it isn’t a movie like he expected—it’s a magic show! He feels curious watching the magician perform amazing tricks. By noticing the clues in his own body—bouncy legs, a fast heartbeat, raised eyebrows—the feelings detective can also recognize when his family members feel the same way.

Sometimes feelings can overwhelm us. I Know Curious helps readers develop skills they can use in these moments to feel better. To cope with boredom, the characters play games and even put on their own magic show. I Know Curious:

• Teaches children to recognize curiosity, boredom, and confusion from clues in their bodies
• Introduces the concept of a feelings detective notebook to help build emotional awareness, intelligence, and skills
• Gives child-friendly ideas for coping with overwhelming emotions
• Offers strategies for caregivers on helping children identify and manage big feelings

The six books in the We Find Feelings Clues series help children learn how to use their bodies’ clues and their past experiences to identify and name their feelings and those of others. Clues are found in facial expressions and body language, sensations within the body, and knowledge of past experiences. After identifying an emotion, children also learn how they can feel better when their emotions are overwhelming. Each book follows a child using a feelings detective notebook to record feelings through drawings and words, as well as information on recognizing and dealing with the book’s featured feelings. The books can stand alone or be used together as a classroom companion to Lindsay N. Giroux’s professional resource, Create an Emotion-Rich Classroom.