When children have strong feelings and emotions about something, it’s important to have someone to talk to about them! Check out these books to help guide your talks through emotions with a young child.
The Sunday Blues
Neal Layton
Overcome back-to-school worries with this charmingly funny tale. What's good about Sundays? Walking the dog, splashing in puddles, visiting Auntie Vera and yummeroony food! So why has Steve got Sunday Blues? Could it be because Monday morning is just around the corner... This gently funny tale about overcoming back-to-school anxiety is perfect for anyone who finds Monday mornings worrisome. From Neal Layton, the award-winning illustrator behind the much-loved Emily Brown series.
Read More View in CatalogHome for a While
Lauren Kerstein
Calvin is in foster care, and he wants to trust someone, anyone, but is afraid to open his heart. He has lived in a lot of houses, but he still hasn't found his home. When he moves in with Maggie, she shows him respect, offers him kindness, and makes him see things in himself that he's never noticed before.
Read More View in CatalogMy Feelings and Me
Holde Kreul
Do you know your own feelings? Sometimes, we're happy, so we laugh and shout with glee. Other times, we're angry, and want to rage and roar. It is not easy to deal with our many contradictory emotions. To recognize our own feelings and deal with them responsibly is an important learning process for children, and a trial of limits. This vibrantly and expressively illustrated book invites children to talk about feelings. It takes readers through a range of potential emotions without ever calling them "good" or "bad," allowing children to recognize and examine their own emotional world.
Read More View in CatalogWhen Sophie’s Feelings Are Really, Really Hurt
Molly Bang
Sophie's is hurt when the other children laugh at her painting of her favorite tree--but when she explains her painting everybody understands what she was trying to do.
View in CatalogWhen I Feel Scared
Cornelia Maude Spelman
Children often feel afraid. This book, with its comforting words and illustrations, will help children address those fears and learn some new ways to cope with being afraid. First, a little bear describes some of the things that frighten him, like bad dreams or big, tall slides, or when his mother goes away. Sometimes, he just feels scared and doesn't know why! But he learns there are things he can do to make himself feel better. A "Note to Parents and Teachers" reinforces the positive messages in the book.
Read More View in CatalogWhen I Feel Jealous
Cornelia Maude Spelman
A bear cub describes situations that make her jealous: when someone has something she wants, when someone is good at something she wants to be good at, and when someone else gets all the attention. "Jealousy is a prickly, hot, horrible feeling. I don't like feeling jealous, but—everybody feels jealous sometimes." The little bear finds ways to make herself feel better—she talks to someone about how she feels and then does something pleasant—and soon the jealous feeling goes away.An author's note for parents and teachers is included.
Read More View in CatalogWay Past Worried
Hallee Adelman
Brock is worried. Way past worried, with his heart thumping and his mind racing. Today is his friend Juan’s superhero party and he’s going all by himself. What if nobody plays with him? What if everyone laughs at him? Brock doesn’t feel like a superhero, but... what if he can save the day and find a way past worried all by himself? This engaging story speaks to kids’ emerging emotional intelligence skills and helps them learn to manage worry.
Read More View in CatalogTilda Tries Again
Tom Percival
From the creator of Ruby Finds a Worry, the perfect picture book for helping children embrace change. Tilda doesn't like change. Why would she, when her life is great just the way it is? But one day, Tilda's world turns completely UPSIDE DOWN. All of a sudden, everything is topsy-turvy, and nothing feels right. Things that were once easy now seem incredibly challenging. Everything is just so different and hard. Can Tilda discover a way to move forward and embrace all this change? Bold, bright, and empowering, this inspiring story about coping with unexpected changes is perfect for helping children build resilience. The Big Bright Feelings picture book series provides kid-friendly entry points into emotional intelligence topics -- from being true to yourself to dealing with worries, managing anger, and making friends. These topics can be difficult to talk about. But these books act as sensitive and reassuring springboards for conversations about mental and emotional health, positive self-image, building self-confidence, and managing feelings. Read all the books in the Big Bright Feelings series! Ruby Finds a Worry Perfectly Norman Ravi's Roar Meesha Makes Friends Tilda Tries Again
Read More View in CatalogOut of a Jar
Deborah Marcero
This highly anticipated follow-up to the critically acclaimed and bestselling picture book In a Jar stars one little bunny dealing with some very big feelings. Llewellyn does not like to feel afraid or sad, angry, lonely, or embarrassed. And so he comes up with a brilliant plan: he tucks each of his feelings into jars and hides them away where they won't bother him anymore. But when he gets in trouble in class, Llewellyn finds he needs to put away excitement too. And when joy is quickly followed by disappointment, he decides to get rid of joy as well. After a while, Llewellyn walks around not feeling much of anything at all. And what happens when his emotions refuse to be bottled up any longer? In this richly illustrated and universally relatable picture book, Llewellyn soon discovers that life is more colorful when he sets his emotions free. And only then, by facing and embracing each of his feelings, is he finally able to let them go.
Read More View in CatalogKindness Is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler
Margery Cuyler
Determined to teach the importance of kindness to her class, Mrs. Ruler gives out an assignment that soon inspires everyone, with the exception of David, to be nicer to one another, yet when the class gerbils escape and David saves the day, he learns that being kind and helpful isn't so corny after all.
Read More View in CatalogHappy Right Now
Julie Berry
An illustrated picture book that teaches the best way to be happy is to embrace the circumstances we find ourselves in each day Happy Right Now brings a much-needed message to kids: it’s great to feel happy, but it’s okay to feel sad sometimes too. Dealing with emotions can be hard. Children experience the same range of strong feelings as adults, but often don’t have the tools to deal with them. For children ages 4 to 8, Happy Right Now teaches emotional intelligence with fun, relatable imagery and clever rhymes. Award-winning author Julie Berry brings a playful bounce to the important lesson that kids don’t need to wait for fantastic gifts, school vacations, or sunny days to find joy in the moment. And even if they can’t find a way to choose happiness—if the blues are just too strong—Berry provides a series of quick practices to help young readers move through their sadness. Smartly illustrated by Holly Hatam, Happy Right Now is perfect for children, parents, and caregivers who want to learn how to navigate difficult emotions and embrace the bright side of any situation, rain or shine.
Read More View in CatalogThe Bad Mood and the Stick
Lemony Snicket
New York Times bestselling author Lemony Snicket sheds light on the way bad moods come and go. Once there was a bad mood and a stick. The stick appeared when a tree dropped it. Where did the bad mood come from? Who picked up the stick? And where is the bad mood off to now? You never know what is going to happen.
Read More View in CatalogBig Feelings
Alexandra Penfold
In their bestselling picture book All Are Welcome, Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman celebrate kindness, inclusivity, and diversity. Now with Big Feelings, they help children navigate the emotional challenges they face in their daily lives. What should we do when things don't go to plan? We may feel mad, frustrated, or overwhelmed, but by talking it through, compromising, and seeing another point of view, we can start fresh, begin anew.
Read More View in CatalogCan I Play Too?
Samantha Cotterill
A young boy building a train track with his friend is headed for trouble until a teacher steps in and helps him learn social cues of anger and happiness.
View in CatalogHurty Feelings
Helen Lester, Lynn Munsinger
It looks like trouble when Fragility, a hippopotamus whose feelings are easily hurt, meets Rudy, a rude elephant, on the soccer field.
View in CatalogIn My Heart
Jo Witek
A young girl explores what different emotions feel like, such as happiness which makes her want to twirl, or sadness which feels as heavy as an elephant.
View in CatalogI Feel Teal
Lauren Rille
A little girl has a rainbow of emotions in this gentle debut picture book that encourages little ones to express their feelings through color. You’re pink, you’re teal, you’re gray, you’re jade. You’re every golden, warmy shade… All of us have lots of feelings, and this sweet rhyming story cleverly uses colors to explore the wide range of emotions little ones experience throughout the day, from a shy scarlet to a quiet ecru to an exuberant magenta. Along the way it celebrates individuality and self-acceptance—after all, our feelings are the palette that makes us who we are!
Read More View in CatalogThe Color Monster
Anna Llenas
The international bestseller that helps young children identify emotions and feel more in control, now available in a classic picture book format. One day, Color Monster wakes up feeling very confused. His emotions are all over the place; he feels angry, happy, calm, sad and scared all at once! To help him, a little girl shows him what each feeling means through color. As this adorable monster learns to sort and define his mixed up emotions, he gains self-awareness and peace as a result. Caregivers will enjoy sharing this concept book that taps into both socio-emotional growth and color concepts in a simple, friendly way.
Read More View in CatalogRuby Finds a Worry
Tom Percival
Meet Ruby--a happy, curious, imaginative girl. But one day, she finds something unexpected: a Worry. It's not such a big Worry, at first. But every day, it grows a little bigger . . . And a little bigger . . . Until eventually, the Worry is ENORMOUS and is all she can think about. But when Ruby befriends a young boy, she discovers that everyone has worries, and not only that, there's a great way to get rid of them too . . . This perceptive and poignant story is the perfect springboard for talking to children about emotional intelligence and sharing hidden anxieties.
Read More View in CatalogWhen Sadness is at Your Door
Eva Eland
A comforting primer in emotional literacy and mindfulness that suggests we approach the feeling of sadness as if it is our guest. Sadness can be scary and confusing at any age! When we feel sad, especially for long periods of time, it can seem as if the sadness is a part of who we are--an overwhelming, invisible, and scary sensation. In When Sadness Is at Your Door, Eva Eland brilliantly approaches this feeling as if it is a visitor. She gives it a shape and a face, and encourages the reader to give it a name, all of which helps to demystify it and distinguish it from ourselves. She suggests activities to do with it, like sitting quietly, drawing, and going outside for a walk. The beauty of this approach is in the respect the book has for the feeling, and the absence of a narrative that encourages the reader to "get over" it or indicates that it's "bad," both of which are anxiety-producing notions.
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