The story within the pages (I am assuming pages, as I read this via an online reader copy) of The Noise Inside Boys: A Story about Big Feelings has been done before. Pete Oswald talks about how we have big feelings and those are legitimate feelings. We follow the youngest of three brothers through the ups and downs of the events that give him his feelings. And see how one can deal with them.
It is the illustrations of Oswald that really made things fresh. They are soft, but not weak. They allow the colors to pop and not be overwhelming to the eye. The colors and images flow across the page and make things lighter than the subject, but do not water down the theme. They are smooth, but still allow for the sharpness of the situation since we do not hear the words that occur during the events, but are viewing the situation as an outside reader. Still, the artwork, along with the narrator’s text, allows you to be part of things.
I am not sure if this book will be a classic, but it has both a classical tone and feeling alone with the more modern subject. It is not the kind of book that I will actively search out and read multiple times, but when the final product is published in May 2023 I do want t see the final results. This is a book that most likely will work for the older crowd (at least seven and up) and for a one-on-one read. You could do it in a group setting, but it might lose some of the intimacy given.