*Review* Ralphy's Rules for Feelings by Talar Herculian Coursey and Riley Herculian Coursey

 Genre: Children's 3-10 years

Published: January 23, 2024

Pages: 36

We have big feelings!

Sometimes we don't know what to do with them or how to change our thoughts that cause these feelings. The first day of school can be scary, but ‘Furrapist’ Jackson Johnson and cute pup Ralphy of Ralphy's Rules for the Good Life, are committed to helping a busload of kids understand and manage their big feelings. During the ride to school, Furrapist Jackson Johnson teaches the children that they can choose their emotions and decide how to respond to them. Ralphy and Jackson make the complicated subject of emotional intelligence accessible for kids to understand and, more importantly, implement in their everyday lives.

So hop on the bus with us and let's learn about how taking charge of our feelings can change our day!

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

This is a cute little book about a therapist who is a dog that helps kids on the school bus. The main focus of the book seemed to be about validating the big feelings that kids can feel, and really emphasizing that it's okay to feel all those feelings rather than pushing them down below the surface. But it also teaches that you can choose to change your feelings if you put some work into it. 

I know this is the kind of book that would have benefited me as a child because I still typically repress all my feelings until they get to be too much and then I explode like a volcano. I know that's not healthy, but I am not equipped with the tools to handle my emotions differently. Because of that, I'd definitely be down to read this book several times, because I want better for my children than what I grew up with. The illustrations were fairly simple, but definitely showed the story as it progressed. 

Overall I give Ralphy's Rules for Feelings 4.0857 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

Talar Herculian Coursey is a lawyer by day and a children's book author, Life Coach and philanthropist by night (more like mornings).

She has been a General Counsel since 2011 and recently joined ComplyAuto, a privacy/cybersecurity Saas company. Before going in-house, she was a file clerk, associate and partner at the national labor and employment law firm, Fisher Phillips LLP.

Talar is a co-author of both #Networked: How 20 Women Lawyers Overcamethe Confines of COVID-19 Social Distancing to Create Connections, CultivateCommunity, & Build Businesses in the Midst of a Global Pandemic and Women In Law: Discovering the True Meaning of Success.

Her first children's book, Ralphy's Rules for Living the Good Life, was published in 2021 and the second book Ralphy's Rules for Feelings in 2023.

Talar has served as the President of the Salt Lake City Chapter for the Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief ("SOAR") since 2015. SOAR, founded in 2005, supports orphanages in Syria, Lebanon and Armenia.

She runs the Salt Lake City Half Marathon every year to raise money for SOAR in memory of her father. Net proceeds from her children's books also go to SOAR.

In addition to being a mother, wife, lawyer, life coach and philanthropist, she is also a runner, yogi and Jesus, Ekhart Tolle, Peloton and Brandon Flowers groupie.

You can find Talar on LinkedIn most days @TalarEsq or on her website www.TalarEsq.com.