- Picture Books
- Ages 3–7
- Everyday Life
I Hate Everything
A funny, validating picture book for those days when a child declares they hate absolutely everything. Useful for big feelings, grumpiness, emotional reframing and adults wanting a light touch rather than a lecture.
- Best for3–7
- FormatPicture
- Length32 pp
- Read aloud~6 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Comedic
- Repetitive
Tone
- Funny
- Warm
- Heartwarming
- Silly
- Gentle
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Sometimes a child is simply in the kind of mood where everything is wrong. I Hate Everything starts from that recognisable feeling and turns it into a funny, reassuring emotional reset. Sophy Henn understands that children do not always need to be told off or talked out of a feeling straight away; sometimes they need a book to sit beside them, exaggerate the mood and help it shift. The story explores how a day that feels full of hate might actually contain plenty of things worth loving, especially when a friend helps you look again. The illustrations are bold, friendly and expressive, making the emotional arc easy for young readers to follow. This is a useful recent addition to the big-feelings shelf, especially for anger, grumpiness, frustration and everyday emotional storms.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 3–7
- Read aloud · 3–8
- Independent · 5–8
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Excellent
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Bedtime
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
4 / 5 · Bedtime-friendly
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Big feelings
- Grumpy days
- Anger
- Funny emotional literacy
- Bad mood reset
Avoid if
- Dislikes negative language
- Wants subtle emotional books
- Prefers no big feelings theme
Particularly good for children who are…
- Anger management
- Low self esteem
- Anxiety and worry
- Bedtime battles
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A funny, relatable read-aloud about a grump learning to spot the good — a great prompt for talk about feelings.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific recognition is the day when nothing is right — Sophy Henn taking a child's blanket grumpiness seriously, sitting alongside the feeling rather than trying to fix it, slowly helping it shift. The picture book for the kind of day where everything is annoying.
- Friendship and belonging
- Transformation
- Trickery and cleverness
Why parents love it
The Sophy Henn for the bad-mood phase — a child declaring they hate everything, the book agreeing rather than correcting, the slow gentle reframe arriving through a friend rather than a lecture. Useful when adults need something other than 'cheer up' to hand to a small child.
- Shared humour
- Conversation starter
- Quick to read
- Bedtime appropriate
About the author & illustrator
Sophy Henn.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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