Published: December 2021
Author: Brittany Vinciguerra | Illustrator: Ekaterina Ilchenko
Genre: Children’s Picture Book / Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Literature
Audience: Grades K–5 (Ages 5–11)
Number of Stars: ★★★★★ (5/5)
Goodreads Link: This Too Shall Pass
Content/Trigger Warnings: None.
Themes: Emotional Transience, Mindfulness, Gratitude, Somatic Awareness, Metacognition for Children.
Review by: Courtney Todd
Publisher’s Summary
We all feel sad and lonely at times, it is a part of life that is often not discussed with our children. What makes the difference is how we handle it. THIS TOO SHALL PASS is a child’s narrative as she encounters sadness and develops her coping skills. It starts off with a young biracial girl who has feelings of melancholy and isolation. She decides to walk outside and take a deep breath, helping her to calm her emotions and appreciate her blessings. Now she recognizes that her “tummy is full” and her “movements are quick”, and is full of gratitude and “surrounded by all of God’s glory.” The purpose of this book is to help children identify that although life can be challenging at times, we have choices on how to handle each and every situation we face. THIS TOO SHALL PASS is on the forefront of improving the mental health of the next generation.
Review
This children’s picture book was a brand-new read and wonderful find for me. I was initially drawn to this title because Brittany Vinciguerra is a children’s book author from Syracuse, NY—which happens to be exactly where I was born and raised!
Explicitly teaching social-emotional skills to children at a young age is absolutely vital to their psychological development and long-term life outcomes. We all experience intense pockets of sadness in our lives, but as young children, we simply don’t know how to organically cope with those big feelings unless an adult intentionally steps in to teach us how. It is incredibly important for young children to learn early on that our emotions and feelings are completely temporary, and that we won’t always feel trapped in a negative headspace.
This beautifully illustrated book successfully communicates this heavy message to young children in a highly functional, developmentally appropriate, and child-friendly way. This is a text that I will permanently add to my professional social-emotional classroom collection, as it teaches children a very important, foundational mindfulness skill that will last them a lifetime! It earns a joyful five stars.
🧠 The Cognitive Shift: From Melancholy to Grounding
Vinciguerra patterns the story around a fundamental dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) concept: moving from emotional dysregulation to physiological and cognitive grounding.
- The Power of Interoception: A key strength of the text is its focus on body-mind awareness (interoception). By prompting the young protagonist to evaluate how her stomach and muscles physically feel after stepping outside, the book teaches children to use physical grounding to interrupt looping emotional distress.
- The Concept of Impermanence: For a child, a big emotion like grief or sadness feels eternal. By titling the book This Too Shall Pass, the narrative provides children with cognitive linguistic packaging to understand that feelings behave like weather patterns—constantly changing and moving through space.
🎒 Classroom & Curricular Connections
- Early Childhood Social-Emotional Learning (The “Emotional Weather” Tracking System):
- Activity Idea: “My Boundary Clouds.” Use the book to introduce the concept of emotional transience. Have younger students draw a massive rain cloud on a piece of paper and write or draw a sad feeling inside it. Then, have them cut out a paper “sun” that slides over the cloud, listing two calming strategies they can use (like taking a deep breath or walking outside, just like the book’s protagonist) to remind them that the storm is temporary.
- Elementary Health & Physical Education (Somatic Resets and Deep Breathing):
- Activity Idea: “The Mindful Step-Outside.” Address the reviewer’s praise of the book’s grounding techniques. Lead students through a basic five-minute sensory countdown outdoors. Have them identify three things they can touch, two things they can hear, and one thing they can smell in nature, mapping out how oxygenating the brain through deep belly breaths changes their immediate physical and emotional state.
- English Language Arts & Visual Literacy (Analyzing Character Transformation):
- Activity Idea: “Color Palettes of the Soul.” Have students look closely at Ekaterina Ilchenko’s illustration choices throughout the book. Analyze how the colors shift from muted, isolated tones at the beginning of the child’s melancholy journey to vibrant, light-filled tones once she experiences gratitude. Have students paint or color two self-portraits: one using “heavy/sad” color wheels and one using “grounded/grateful” colors, explaining their artistic choices.
