I’m Sad Today

I was not expecting this work to be the way it was based on the title. I was anticipating more of an exploration of how young people can articulate their feelings, especially when they are feeling sad or blue, as many children have trouble expressing the emotions and feelings they are experiencing without acting out in a destructive manner.

This work instead follows Olga, who feels sad today and everything she does makes her feel sad. She explores the different objects throughout the room and her world, and each one of them makes her sad. Even when her grandmother asks her what is wrong and Olga explains she is sad the grandmother is fairly nonplussed by the situation. The book ends with the grandmother finishing a sweater for Olga to wear as Olga looks for her sorrow and where it has gone.

While the art is expressive and fairly easy to follow, the storyline is a different story. Not much to go on and at the end not really much of a moral for young children to follow with a very ambiguous ending more common to European films than children books.