Tears! Big Boys Cry by Jonty Howley

It was Levi's first day at a new school, and Levi was scared.

His Papa doesn't know how to help him. So he tries to give him courage.

"Big boys don't cry."

And as Levi walks alone to that new school along the harbor road, he doesn't cry. He can be a big boy, he thinks.

But as he walks he sees the tears of a fisherman, hugging his children as he leaves on a long sail.

Levi takes the new streets through a new town, but as he goes, his sees the tears of some people--parents taking their new baby out for the first time, a grandfather with tears of pride, watching his beautiful little granddaughter, a young man proposing marriage, a tough biker searching for his lost dog, a musician moved by music....

Levi sheds a tear himself, as he approaches his new school, but nevertheless he goes inside and is welcomed by his new teacher and class. His day is good, and Levi has no more tears of fear.

But when he returned home Levi was surprised.

Papa had tears in his eyes.

There are many kinds of tears, Levi learns--tears of fear and relief, loss and joy... and yes, pride.

And Levi and Papa shed a few tears of understanding together, in Jonty Howley's unusual first-day-of-school story, Big Boys Cry (Random House, 2019). Beginnings are hard for young children, who haven't experienced so many endings and beginnings. Tears can be brave as well as fearful, and Howley's gentle story of emotions set in the frame of a first-day experience has a lot to say about natural emotions--at any time of life. Illustrator Howley's quaintly stylized seaside town, a setting where sea and land come together, is a perfect location for this story of endings and new beginnings and the courage to face them. Says Kirkus Reviews, "A compassionate story that encourages openness and honesty about emotions."