In My Heart: A Book of Feelings
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek takes about 4 minutes to read aloud (416 words, about 2 sentences a page), and it lands best with children aged 2-5.
Measured read-aloud timeabout 4 minutes
- Words
- 416our estimate, not a published count
- Sentences a page
- 2
- Re-read tolerance
- 4/5survives a fortnight on repeat
- Vocabulary
- 2/5everyday words
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The useful verdict
Why In My Heart: A Book of Feelings works
A die-cut heart shrinks and grows through the pages, so the child can see and touch how big the feeling is - and each emotion is described as a body sensation ('my heart feels like a fluttering bird'), which is what a three-year-old can actually notice in themselves.
Themes: emotions, the body, naming feelings, die-cuts.
Same shape, new story
Books like In My Heart: A Book of Feelings
Matched by length, refrain, sentence density, and listener—not just subject.
The Color Monster: A Story About Emotionsabout 3 minutes · 4/5 re-read
Grumpy Monkeyabout 4.5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
The Goodbye Bookabout 1.5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
The Rabbit Listenedabout 2.5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
The Invisible Stringabout 3 minutes · 4/5 re-read
Guess How Much I Love Youabout 3.5 minutes · 3/5 re-read
The Good Eggabout 5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
Ruby Finds a Worryabout 4 minutes · 4/5 re-read
Eyes That Kiss in the Cornersabout 3.5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
Straight answers
Questions parents ask about In My Heart: A Book of Feelings
- How long does it take to read In My Heart: A Book of Feelings aloud?
- About 4 minutes at an unhurried pace, from a word count of 416. Reading it fast shaves perhaps a third off; stopping for questions on every page can double it.
- What age is In My Heart: A Book of Feelings actually for?
- Ages 2-5 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 2 sentences a page and vocabulary at 2 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.
- Does In My Heart: A Book of Feelings survive being read on repeat?
- Yes. It survives a fortnight of nightly repeats, which is the real test.
- Is In My Heart: A Book of Feelings a good book for a child who will not sit still?
- It helps that it has a refrain a child can join in with, and it asks the child questions to answer out loud. Those three features are what keep a wriggling toddler listening, far more than the subject matter does.
- Will my child memorise In My Heart: A Book of Feelings?
- Probably, and fast. The book leans on a repeated refrain, and at 4 out of 5 for re-read tolerance it survives the nightly repeats that get a book memorised. Expect your child to chant the pattern back before they can actually read.
- Can a beginning reader read In My Heart: A Book of Feelings on their own?
- It is closer than most picture books. With 2 sentences a page and plain vocabulary (2 out of 5), a confident early reader can attempt it, though it is written to be read aloud first.
- Is In My Heart: A Book of Feelings part of a series?
- Yes, it belongs to the Growing Hearts series. It stands on its own, so you can start here without reading the others in order, then move to the rest if it lands.
- What themes does In My Heart: A Book of Feelings cover?
- We tag it with emotions, the body, naming feelings and die-cuts. Those are the threads that actually run through the book, not just the ones on the cover, which is how it earns its place on our themed lists rather than a keyword match.