Exclusive spread for MIXED FEELINGS by Liana Finck

Sometimes, you just want to do an exclusive spread from a book.
Who amongst you remembers the picture book You Broke It! by New Yorker cartoonist Liana Finck when it was released last year? Welp, Finck’s back with a whole new title, and I’ve got the fancy dancy spread to prove it.
Mixed Feelings by Liana Finck hits bookstore and library shelves on January 21st. The publisher chooses to describe it this way:
Presented in illustrated vignettes and beautifully articulate text, each spread portrays a different scenario involving a child and a phrase that reminds readers (young and old) that not all feelings can be summed up in a single word. The text “Mostly happy but a little sad” accompanies a child leaving for the beach but waving goodbye to his dog. “Like I’m trying hard to have fun” shows a child distancing herself from a towering clown.
But where did the book come from? Liana Finck answers that here:
————-
“I was a really shy kid who didn’t see her feelings reflected in other kids or any understanding from my teachers on what I was going through when I was young. My feelings always expressed themselves more in metaphor like “the feeling of wanting to be a dog”. In fact I actually got expelled from nursery school for pretending to be a dog! I wasn’t even trying to be mischievous, I wanted to hide, and I think also to entertain. I don’t know if the dog obsession was an age thing or a me thing, but I notice that I see similarly opaque expressions of feeling in my three-year-old son. And in myself, still, too. I’ve pretended I’ve become very self-aware in my feelings but there are so many layers there – I have so many conflicting feelings at the same time. I think we all do, no matter what age.”
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And now, folks, the spread!

God, I love that little “AND CHAIR”.
Liana Finck is a cartoonist, illustrator and regular contributor to the New Yorker where she also authors the “Dear Pepper” advice-from-a-dog column. As the author of nine books, her work also frequently appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, New YorkMagazine and more. She is the recipient of Fulbright, Guggenheim and New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. www.lianafinck.com
Many thanks to Karter Powell and the folks at Penguin for this excerpt. Mixed Feelings by Liana Finck hits bookstore and library shelves on January 21st.
Filed under: Excerpts

About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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