‘Crying is good for the soul’: Local author writes children’s book about understanding emotions

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - A Richmond author is helping children and adults through a children’s book focused on understanding hidden emotions.

“I believe it takes a village. It takes a village to be able to create change. It takes a village to be able to raise children. It takes a village to be able to have a fully functioning, healthy family,” said Tasha Moore.

The mother, mental health professional and business owner is the founder of We Unite LLC, which is focused on creating safe spaces for the community.

Moore is also the author of No Crying Allowed: A Boy’s Journey to understanding hidden emotions.

“Part of my slogan and part of my supporting materials that go along with the book is a sticker or buttons. One of those is ‘crying is good for the soul’, she explained. “I believe crying is cathartic. It is therapeutic. It helps you to release a lot of the things that you have inside that sometimes you don’t know are there until you’re sitting there and tears start welling up in your eyes.”

While the book’s title is about a boy’s journey to understanding emotions, Moore says it is for everyone.

“I want to be able to help readers, young readers, or even adults that are reading with children to be able to uncover and untap those emotions that are covered so that you can be more healthy in your expressions and healthy in your relationships and communication,” Moore said. “I believe that feelings do not have a gender. Emotions don’t have a gender. It’s a human thing. As a girl, I was raised to not even express my emotions and didn’t have the safe space to be able to do so. In working in this field, in mental health and community, I just want to be able to encourage knowing that your raw emotions are exactly what you feel.”

The book’s content is geared towards second graders and older, but Moore is finding that the messages resonate with adults reading alongside young people.

“The reaction that I get mostly is from adults, and they are reading with children and recognizing that, ‘Hey, similar things happened to me, and I didn’t realize that I still had feelings about it until I saw it in the picture, or until I read it in the words, and it helped me to be able to have an authentic, interaction with my kid, or with a student,‘” said Moore.

Moore’s self-published No Crying Allowed: A Boys Guide to Understanding Hidden Emotions works alongside an illustrator to draw readers in through the words and pictures on each page. There are also two essential lists in the book to offer resources.

“One that gives you some points about connecting to kids with trauma. So not making them feel guilty, talking to them one-on-one and not screaming at them in front of a group reminding of who’s listening and validating their feelings,” said Moore. “[And] a glossary in terms of talking to a kid or even somebody that’s not even familiar with trauma, and you hear that word a lot, but you don’t know what that means, and you don’t know how to use some of those words in language.”

The book is currently in libraries in Richmond and Henrico, but Moore wants to get it into schools all over Virginia.

“I would love to be able to get this book inside of every school possible,” she said.