Little Miss Austen Emma: An Emotions Primer by Jennifer Adams, Illustrated by Alison Oliver

Little Miss Austen Emma: An Emotions Primer is a beautifully illustrated board book that explains the emotions of the main characters of Emma by Jane Austen.  My four year old daughter Penelope was captivated by the bright pictures and as an Austen lover, I was entertained by the emotions assigned to each character.  

After we read the book through once, I read the book again with Penelope and explained why each character had that emotion and gave the back story.  Penelope thought the entire abbreviated tale of Emma was intriguing.  She is a future Austen fan in the making.  My 9 and 7 year old sons were impressed that I knew the backstory and thought I was a genius for randomly knowing it.  Little do they know I’ve been Austen obsessed for over twenty years.

I think everyone’s favorite page was “Mr. Elton is Angry.”  Penelope was quit distressed that he was angry because Emma had refused to marry him.  This led to an interesting train of thought for Penelope, “Did you ever refuse to marry someone Mommy?” 

My other favorite page was “Frank Churchill is Amused.”  That perfectly sums up Frank Churchill.

Overall, Little Miss Austen Emma:  An Emotions Primer is a great first book for your future Austen loving child, and it is also so entertaining for the Austen loving adult.  Penelope my four year old enjoyed the book a lot, and as she learns to read this year, this will probably be one of the first books she reads as well.

Book Source:  I received this book from the publisher Gibbs Smith for Review – Thanks!