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I'm Bored! #2
I'm Sad
A girl, a potato, and a very sad flamingo star in this charming sequel to I’m Bored by New York Times bestselling author and comedian Michael Ian Black and celebrated illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi.
Everyone feels sad sometimes—even flamingos.
Sigh.
When Flamingo announces he’s feeling down, the little girl and Potato try to cheer him up, but nothing seems to work. Not even dirt! (Which usually works for Potato.)
Flamingo learns that he will not always feel this way. And his friends learn that sometimes being a friend means you don’t have to cheer someone up. You just have to stick by your pal no matter how they feel.
Even if they’re a potato.
Everyone feels sad sometimes—even flamingos.
Sigh.
When Flamingo announces he’s feeling down, the little girl and Potato try to cheer him up, but nothing seems to work. Not even dirt! (Which usually works for Potato.)
Flamingo learns that he will not always feel this way. And his friends learn that sometimes being a friend means you don’t have to cheer someone up. You just have to stick by your pal no matter how they feel.
Even if they’re a potato.
Unknown Binding
First published June 5, 2018
About the author
Michael Ian Black
31 books428 followersMichael Ian Black is a popular comedian who began his career with "The State," a sketch comedy troupe he co-founded at New York University in 1988, which went on to have a successful run on MTV. He then co-created the Comedy Central television series "Viva Variety," a fake European variety show.
From there, he appeared on several television shows before landing the role of Phil Stubbs, the quirky bowling alley manager on NBC's "Ed," which ran for almost four seasons. His next project was "Stella," a television show he co-created with Michael Showalter and David Wain, which ran on Comedy Central. Black has appeared in several films and is a popular contributor to VH1's "I Love the..." series.
In 2005, he wrote and directed his first film, "Wedding Daze," which starred Jason Biggs and Isla Fisher. His screenplay "Run Fat Boy Run," starring Simon Pegg and Thandie Newton, came out in 2007. Black is also a stand-up comedian, who regularly tours the country. His first album of stand-up comedy, "I Am a Wonderful Man," was released in 2007, and his first book of humorous essays, My Custom Van (and 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays That Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face) came out in 2008. His first children's book, Chicken Cheeks was released in January, 2009. His latest project is "Michael and Michael Have Issues," a comedy series premiering in July 2009 on Comedy Central. Black is married and has two children.
From there, he appeared on several television shows before landing the role of Phil Stubbs, the quirky bowling alley manager on NBC's "Ed," which ran for almost four seasons. His next project was "Stella," a television show he co-created with Michael Showalter and David Wain, which ran on Comedy Central. Black has appeared in several films and is a popular contributor to VH1's "I Love the..." series.
In 2005, he wrote and directed his first film, "Wedding Daze," which starred Jason Biggs and Isla Fisher. His screenplay "Run Fat Boy Run," starring Simon Pegg and Thandie Newton, came out in 2007. Black is also a stand-up comedian, who regularly tours the country. His first album of stand-up comedy, "I Am a Wonderful Man," was released in 2007, and his first book of humorous essays, My Custom Van (and 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays That Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face) came out in 2008. His first children's book, Chicken Cheeks was released in January, 2009. His latest project is "Michael and Michael Have Issues," a comedy series premiering in July 2009 on Comedy Central. Black is married and has two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
January 24, 2023
Everyone feels sad sometimes. In I’m Sad, a girl and a potato (yes, a potato) help their flamingo friend who is feeling sad. They try different ways to “cheer up” the flamingo, but nothing seems to help. The story affirms that it is okay to be sad sometimes and your friends will stick with you no matter how you are feeling.
The illustrations are great - bright and bold, using different colors to show when the girl (blue), the flamingo (pink), or the potato (brown) is speaking. Recommended for young readers or as a read-aloud (especially good for a read aloud if you use different voices for the girl, potato, and flamingo!). -Diana F.
The illustrations are great - bright and bold, using different colors to show when the girl (blue), the flamingo (pink), or the potato (brown) is speaking. Recommended for young readers or as a read-aloud (especially good for a read aloud if you use different voices for the girl, potato, and flamingo!). -Diana F.
January 14, 2020
Great first book on sadness - and how your friends can help you.
October 17, 2018
I don't read a lot of children's books, but this book particularly impressed me. I wish that, as a child, I had received more messages like this about how emotions are natural and should be accepted, not overcome.
June 20, 2018
I fell in love with the cleverness in using unorthodox characters to tell the story. The three characters tell one another what brings out their sadness. They talk about how they cope with their sadness but what works for one will not work for the other two. Then they find there is one thing they share that will bring them out of sadness.
We learn that it is all right to be sad sometimes.
We learn that it is all right to be sad sometimes.
December 20, 2020
Note: Review of Advance Reader Copy | Book Releases on 6/5/18
"Everyone feels sad sometimes. Even Flamingos," and if you're lucky, you might have friends like the kindhearted girl and the concerned potato in the book I'm Sad to help you when you're down.
I can't help but to be encouraged by this story because, yeah, sometimes we feel sad and its okay. I look at the flamingo as courageous because it was brave enough to say that it was feeling sad. That alone isn't easy. Sure, we all have experienced sadness, but we don't always find a safe space to verbalize such feelings even though it is healthy for us to do so. The flamingo asks great questions too. Will I always feel this way? Why do sad things happen? The girl and the potato are great listeners and they offer timely advice when they see their friend could use some cheering up. This is why friendship means the world to me. Just knowing you have someone you can laugh and cry with is everything. This book is a gem and I know it will inspire you and any child you share it with in a meaningful way.
This is the second book in the I'm Series. With the first being, I'm Bored (2012). Both were written by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi who does a phenomenal job of communicating each characters' feelings through their facial expressions and body language. One thing to note that my students and I really appreciate is that the text color matches the coloring of the characters. It makes it that much easier to tell who is speaking when. I usually wait to point this out to students as I want to see their excitement when they realize that is what's happening. They are great text detectives. I look forward to adding this book to our K-5 library in June.
I'm Sad
Michael Ian Black
"Everyone feels sad sometimes. Even Flamingos," and if you're lucky, you might have friends like the kindhearted girl and the concerned potato in the book I'm Sad to help you when you're down.
I can't help but to be encouraged by this story because, yeah, sometimes we feel sad and its okay. I look at the flamingo as courageous because it was brave enough to say that it was feeling sad. That alone isn't easy. Sure, we all have experienced sadness, but we don't always find a safe space to verbalize such feelings even though it is healthy for us to do so. The flamingo asks great questions too. Will I always feel this way? Why do sad things happen? The girl and the potato are great listeners and they offer timely advice when they see their friend could use some cheering up. This is why friendship means the world to me. Just knowing you have someone you can laugh and cry with is everything. This book is a gem and I know it will inspire you and any child you share it with in a meaningful way.
This is the second book in the I'm Series. With the first being, I'm Bored (2012). Both were written by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi who does a phenomenal job of communicating each characters' feelings through their facial expressions and body language. One thing to note that my students and I really appreciate is that the text color matches the coloring of the characters. It makes it that much easier to tell who is speaking when. I usually wait to point this out to students as I want to see their excitement when they realize that is what's happening. They are great text detectives. I look forward to adding this book to our K-5 library in June.
I'm Sad
Michael Ian BlackSeptember 20, 2018
This book is brilliant! I love the grumpy little talking potato and the shaky lines around the pink flamingo. The three characters are so individualized and complementary, established immediately with both text and illustrations. A sad, young friend of mine gave it a thumbs down, so I didn't expect to like it. I think maybe she felt invalidated by the insistence that "you won't always be sad." But the message is actually very accepting and it ends with a confident reassurance that "I like you all the time. When you're sad or angry or bored or anything else." The flamingo still feels sad at the end, but feels a little better for sharing a laugh with his friends, and it is OK that the sadness is not completely resolved. This is a wonderful message for sad kids and those who love them. We need more of this compassion and consistency and acceptance.
November 10, 2019
Another terrific picture book about identifying and coping with an emotion from the same picture book creation partnership that brought us I'm Bored. Really appreciate the healthy advice that while sadness can be cheered up, it is also okay to just feel sad sometimes. Humorous, age-appropriate handling of the subject matter makes this book an effective conversation starter for a difficult topic. Illustrations do a great job of enhancing characterization.
October 19, 2018
Strikes a great balance between sincere, mature message of "it's ok to be sad! sometimes you will feel sad and cheering up won't work but you can just let yourself be sad and it probably won't last forever", and being light and funny enough for a storytime.
October 12, 2018
A flamingo is sad, and his friends are trying to cheer him up. This little book is a good book for starting a conversation about difficult feelings.
June 13, 2018
I follow artist Debbie Ridpath Ohi on Twitter because a retweet of her whimsical doodles encompassing everyday objects made my news feed so much more fun to visit. Plus, I homeschool a budding graphic novel artist and her website is filled with fantastic resources. I was enchanted when posts about her newest release written by author Michael Ian Black, “I’m Sad”, started showing up in my feed. The cover art was exactly the playful vibrant sketches I have come to love from her and exactly the thing to catch the interest of any child and hold it until the last page of a book. I had to wait for my copy, so I kept myself busy by checking out the previous book in the series.
I sometimes feel sorry for authors of children’s picture books. Almost always it is the art in these books that captures attention. The prose often falls flat or feels more like an accessory to colors and lines that are the real stars of the book. It isn’t often that I see the type of near-perfect symbiosis of word and art found in this series. Bonus points for wrapping the fun up in an important life lesson kids won’t even notice they are learning.
When Flamingo shares with his friends that he is feeling sad and is worried that he will always feel that way, they try to find ways to cheer him up. The essential message, in the end, is that it is okay to feel sad sometimes, everyone does sometimes and sometimes all a friend can do is just be there. I giggled my way through “I’m Bored”, finding its inescapable kid logic about how hard (or not actually hard at all) it is to find a fun activity to be delightfully fun. While both books offer children a comic boost in dealing with typical kid emotions, the message in “I’m Sad” is just a bit more profound and timely. For all that the dynamic among the three friends in the book sets the tone to be quite funny, the seriousness of the topic is never lost. As the mom of a special needs child, I would have enjoyed this series when my child was a bit younger.
For a lot of kids, the simple validation of their emotions can go a long way towards helping them to process those emotions. It is great to find a children’s book that can accomplish this without being too heavy-handed. I look forward to further collaboration between Black and Ohi and many more installments in this winning series.
I sometimes feel sorry for authors of children’s picture books. Almost always it is the art in these books that captures attention. The prose often falls flat or feels more like an accessory to colors and lines that are the real stars of the book. It isn’t often that I see the type of near-perfect symbiosis of word and art found in this series. Bonus points for wrapping the fun up in an important life lesson kids won’t even notice they are learning.
When Flamingo shares with his friends that he is feeling sad and is worried that he will always feel that way, they try to find ways to cheer him up. The essential message, in the end, is that it is okay to feel sad sometimes, everyone does sometimes and sometimes all a friend can do is just be there. I giggled my way through “I’m Bored”, finding its inescapable kid logic about how hard (or not actually hard at all) it is to find a fun activity to be delightfully fun. While both books offer children a comic boost in dealing with typical kid emotions, the message in “I’m Sad” is just a bit more profound and timely. For all that the dynamic among the three friends in the book sets the tone to be quite funny, the seriousness of the topic is never lost. As the mom of a special needs child, I would have enjoyed this series when my child was a bit younger.
For a lot of kids, the simple validation of their emotions can go a long way towards helping them to process those emotions. It is great to find a children’s book that can accomplish this without being too heavy-handed. I look forward to further collaboration between Black and Ohi and many more installments in this winning series.
June 6, 2018
If you thought the previous book, I'M BORED, by the dynamic duo of Michael Ian Black and Debbie Ohi was good, I assure you, this one is even better. I’M SAD deals with a universal emotion felt by all of us, no matter our age. The story may seem simple enough at first reading, but it touches upon many different types of sadness and possible solutions for getting over them in a funny and non-didactic way, and has a satisfying ending. Debbie Ohi’s illustrations enhance and elevate the text with her expressive characters, beautiful lines, and perfect palette for a sad-but-not-too-sad-going-on-happy mood. While it is great for little kids, I’m also keeping a copy for myself to cheer me up when I next get into a funk.
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June 5, 2018This is nice because it tells you it's okay to be sad. It's not really funny like their other books, but it is a bit silly.
August 23, 2018
Perfectly done. It's OK to feel sad. Every illustration and word is perfect.
October 3, 2018
I needed this
April 3, 2019
This book has such a great message! It teaches children how to be okay with emotions especially hard emotions!
August 26, 2022
شاید اشکالی نداشته باشد بعضی وقتها هم ناراحت باشی.
March 27, 2019
Flamant-rose est triste. La petite fille et la patate trouveront des pistes de solution pour lui faire retrouver les sourires. Une belle morale en fin de livre. Je l'achèterais aux enfants de mes amies, j'ai bien aimé !
August 22, 2018
I'm Sad is a children's picture book written by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, which tells about a sad flamingo, a potato, and a little girl. It is a sequel or companion book to I'm Bored.
Black's text is simplistic and straightforward. It is a quaint and surprisingly deep story about a sad flamingo and a girl and a potato trying to comfort and cheer the flamingo up. The text isn't linear, which I usually hate, but it’s part of the charm and dynamic of the book. Ohi's illustrations are a tad simplistic, but so is the text, so it is rather apropos to the text.
The premise of the book is rather straightforward. It is about a flamingo that is sad and a little girl and a potato that are trying to comfort and cheer the flamingo up – they ask deep questions like why does sadness exists and what to do with sadness. The little girl and potato managed to get flamingo to laugh, but he was still a little sad, which is okay.
In the end, Flamingo learns that he will not always be sad, while his friends learn that sometimes being a friend means you do not have to cheer someone up. You just have to stick by your friends no matter how they feel. It also gives anyone the permission to feel sad and that it is perfectly fine to feel that way from time to time.
All in all, I'm Sad is a wonderfully written children's book that sadness is a valid emotion and how to deal with someone that is feeling particular sad.
Black's text is simplistic and straightforward. It is a quaint and surprisingly deep story about a sad flamingo and a girl and a potato trying to comfort and cheer the flamingo up. The text isn't linear, which I usually hate, but it’s part of the charm and dynamic of the book. Ohi's illustrations are a tad simplistic, but so is the text, so it is rather apropos to the text.
The premise of the book is rather straightforward. It is about a flamingo that is sad and a little girl and a potato that are trying to comfort and cheer the flamingo up – they ask deep questions like why does sadness exists and what to do with sadness. The little girl and potato managed to get flamingo to laugh, but he was still a little sad, which is okay.
In the end, Flamingo learns that he will not always be sad, while his friends learn that sometimes being a friend means you do not have to cheer someone up. You just have to stick by your friends no matter how they feel. It also gives anyone the permission to feel sad and that it is perfectly fine to feel that way from time to time.
All in all, I'm Sad is a wonderfully written children's book that sadness is a valid emotion and how to deal with someone that is feeling particular sad.
September 26, 2018
This is a FANTASTIC book about sadness/grief. It's OK to feel sad, it won't last forever, and different things make different people/animals/potatoes feel better. There is some humor, too, although I don't quite want to "shelve" it as humor. But it did make my coworker laugh out loud, which is what brought the book to my attention in the first place!
The illustrations are outstanding--similar to Mo Willems in the way that a few lines and relatively simple drawings perfectly capture the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of these three friends.
My only quibble is that the wrong verb tense is used on one page, which is a pet peeve of mine. It should say, "If I WERE an astronaut, I would never be sad." Not "was." Copy editors should have caught this mistake. It's an "unreal conditional." Yes, I know I'm a big grammar nerd, but clarity and accuracy matters in language/communication!
The illustrations are outstanding--similar to Mo Willems in the way that a few lines and relatively simple drawings perfectly capture the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of these three friends.
My only quibble is that the wrong verb tense is used on one page, which is a pet peeve of mine. It should say, "If I WERE an astronaut, I would never be sad." Not "was." Copy editors should have caught this mistake. It's an "unreal conditional." Yes, I know I'm a big grammar nerd, but clarity and accuracy matters in language/communication!
January 5, 2019
Everyone feels sad sometimes. We meet a girl, a potato, and a sad flamingo who talk over their thoughts and feelings before coming to realize it's ok to feel sad. We don't have to make our friends stop feeling what they are feeling, we can just be there for them with understanding and compassion. Part of a series of "I'm books" in which Michael Ian Black helps children understand their experiences with a sense of compassionate curiosity. Illustrations by Debbie Ridpath Ohi are visually appealing in their simplicity and and sensitivity.
July 1, 2018
I have to say this book made me sad....The flamingo on the front is adorable but the content inside was meh.
I understand the need to teach children that being sad is ok, and it is very important. I think this missed the mark....around the time the potato was added in. I have not read "I'm bored" so maybe that is where the potato came in...so maybe if I get around to reading that one I will change my rating of this one. As a stand alone book I would only give it a one though.
I understand the need to teach children that being sad is ok, and it is very important. I think this missed the mark....around the time the potato was added in. I have not read "I'm bored" so maybe that is where the potato came in...so maybe if I get around to reading that one I will change my rating of this one. As a stand alone book I would only give it a one though.
September 4, 2018
I'm a sucker for well-written kids books about depression, especially childhood depression. I like books about it being okay to just feel sad. This book can be interpreted as either one of them.
Essentially a Flamingo is sad. It's two friends (a grumpy potato and a cheerful little girl) try to cheer up Flamingo, but Flamingo's sadness just doesn't budge. But, they reassure Flamingo that that persistence of sadness can be normal too--and that's ok!
Essentially a Flamingo is sad. It's two friends (a grumpy potato and a cheerful little girl) try to cheer up Flamingo, but Flamingo's sadness just doesn't budge. But, they reassure Flamingo that that persistence of sadness can be normal too--and that's ok!
September 26, 2018
The potato was such a great character. The book tells a great message about how it's okay to feel sad and that your friends and family will love you no matter what you're feeling, but that potato, man. What a star.
July 19, 2020
Such a good book that reminds us we don't always have to be happy, and it's okay to be sad for no real "reason." Also, we might not feel any better after trying to "cheer ourselves up" and that is okay.
July 9, 2018
Potato is back to add just the right amount of humor to this fabulous read for any social-emotional message, "I'm sad. It's ok to be sad. I am still loved when sad. I will be ok."
September 27, 2018
I like this even more than I'm Bored! I know so many adults who will benefit from this!
February 15, 2024
Sweet title reassuring kids that you're allowed to feel sad.
January 27, 2019
I'm Sad - Michael Ian Black,Debbie Ridpath Ohi Punchy art, amusing characters and story. It has a point, but isn't too heavy-handed about getting there.
Library copy
Library copy
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March 21, 2019A cute book about how sometimes you’re sad and that’s perfectly okay.
March 28, 2019
Simple and direct, and a little bit silly, which I like. Good book to foster discussions about sadness and other emotions.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews