My heart review: an emotional guide for children

In this book, the author, Corinna Luyken, encourages young readers to listen to their heart: our filter on the world. Here is the review of My Heart

TITLE: MY HEART. AUTHOR: CORINNA LUYKEN. GENRE: ILLUSTRATED BOOK. PUBLISHING HOUSE: FATATRAC. YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2019.

In this small masterpiece, dedicated to the inner voice that leads us to know reality, the author contains a real ode to love and self-acceptance. Let’s go, however, to read in detail in this review of My Heart.

The plot | My heart review: an emotional guide for children

It is everyone’s story, the story of a heart that the author / illustrator brings to light through images and verses, metaphors and colors. A heart that appears yellow and changes from time to time, grows, gets angry just like us.

My heart | My heart review: an emotional guide for children

The heart as it learns to be heart? What is a heart? Could be window and open up, one puddle in which to mirror itself, it can shrink and enlarge, break and get back on its feet.

The author, through numerous metaphors, communicates to the reader in a disarming way. That heart so difficult to understand must be followed, supported. Through the black designs, colored only by that yellow light so bursting, which is the heart, Luyken shows the life enclosed in that single muscle. A living muscle, in fact, and able to be impressed by what happens. A changing heart that becomes a pair of yellow boots wet from puddles, a panoramic window, a small yellow petal to be treated, a plant.

This is precisely the most significant metaphor of the book which, perhaps, encompasses its whole being: one map planted, cultivated, harvested, replanted, indicative of the fact that you have to take care of that little heart, the yellow light in a thick black darkness. The heart is subject to life, to its problems but stable and bright. And, just like a plant, the love that is inside it will multiply and bear fruit if we manage not to be afraid to give it.

Closed or open heart | My heart review: an emotional guide for children

“My heart is a window. My heart can be closed or completely open. […] Some days it is broken, but what is broken can be repaired and a closed heart can always be reopened. […] Closed or open… it just depends on me ”.

The author ends her book with these words, inviting us to become aware of the potential of our heart. We are the heart, we are those emotions, we are those anxieties, those problems, that sadness, that lightheartedness we are. We have to take care of it.

It is up to us to decide to open our heart, just like a window, and water it, just like a plant so that it grows and multiplies. The heart is part of us and the choice is the margin of freedom.

Corinna Luyken

Corinna Luyken is a well-known author and illustrator, especially for “The book of mistakes”, for which she has received many awards. She lives in Olympia, Washington with her husband, daughter and two cats.

Points in favor

• Deep
• Tender
• Metaphorical
• Delicate

Points against

• The illustrations may not appeal to young children, being monochrome