Emotions can be a complex and often daunting subject to teach children about. They may not understand what they are feeling at any given moment, or they may not know how to accurately explain their feelings with words other people can understand. This can make it hard for parents to accurately communicate with their child, which leaves everyone feeling frustrated.
Luckily, many great children’s books now exist to help parents (and other caregivers) develop children’s emotional intelligence and shape their emotional reactivity. Here are 7 books that can help your child understand emotions.
7 Making Faces: A First Book of Emotions by Abrams Appleseed
“Look at the happy baby. Can you make a happy face? Find the happy baby!”
This delightful board book introduces babies and toddlers to five essential emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, and silliness. It uses pictures of actual babyfaces, and the words encourage young children to mimic the faces. The end of the book not only reviews each emotion but provides a mirror for your babies to observe themselves as they try each expression.
Teaching emotions and building tools of expression is a vital part of child development, which makes adding this one to your early library a no-brainer.
Buy from Amazon: $7.95
6 My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
Known for his clever rhymes and silly stories, Dr. Seuss also created a colorful concept book for the youngest readers!
My Many Colored Days helps young toddlers identify colors and feelings, plus connect the two concepts. It’s a great way to introduce both topics to your youngsters, while also allowing you to later connect the author's name to other great stories.
One of the best early children's books about feelings, this one is available in multiple printed formats.
Buy from Amazon: $6.06
5 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
From waking up with gum in his hair to eating lima beans for dinner, Alexander is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, indeed!
This hilarious, yet endearing classic follows a young child through a day filled with his least favorite things and many other disappointments. Though he threatens to move “down under,” by the end of the day, Alexander learns that “some days are just like that… even in Australia.” This book shows anger and negative experiences in a funny and relatable way, making it great for helping young children see that you can experience tough days and live to tell the tale.
Buy from Amazon: $8.08
4 Me And My Fear by Francesca Sanna
New experiences can terrify even the youngest of people, so why not explore fear with your children through reading stories about fear?
Me and My Fear follows a young immigrant girl through the experiences of moving to a new country and starting at a new school. Fear accompanies her, and grows daily by filling her mind with whispers and questions. Sanna shows us that we are all stronger than our fears and we can always overcome anxiety. After all, everyone carries their own little Fear with them, even if he just stays in our pocket.
If you love this great children’s book about feelings, consider checking out Sanna’s other best-selling book, The Journey.
Buy from Amazon: $12.29
3 Have You Filled Your Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud
We all have an invisible bucket to hold the positive thoughts that keep us feeling happy throughout the day.
By using a simple metaphor, author Carol McCloud illustrates that kindness not only fills the buckets of those around us, but it fills our own buckets, too! Inversely, when we treat others cruelly, we dip into everyone’s buckets and empty them. This 32-page children’s book about feelings is the perfect way to encourage kindness in your home or classroom environment.
For additional bucket-filling resources to accompany this book, check out bucketfillers101.com.
Buy from Amazon: $7.79
2 When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry... by Molly Bang
Everyone feels angry sometimes. So, how do we teach children to deal with these intense emotions?
In this Caldecott Honor book, kids will see what Sophie does when she gets angry. Although Sophie’s coping skills may not work for everyone, this book helps parents and other caregivers discuss anger with young children in a way that makes sense to them. This book helps demonstrate that instead of throwing tantrums, we can all use our senses and our body’s natural distress tolerance skills to ease the turmoil inside.
If Sophie strikes gold at your house, consider checking out the other books in the series.
Buy from Amazon: $6.99
1 The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett
Beatrice Bottomwell has never made a mistake! But what happens when she finally does?
In The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes, we learn along with Beatrice that sometimes our best moments can blossom from our biggest blunders. This book helps kids see that sometimes laughter is the best medicine, and learning to let go of those perfectionistic tendencies can help us all feel less embarrassed when inevitable mistakes occur.
Growth mindset is becoming a major buzzword in the world of education, and this book is a great addition to a home or classroom library to help explore that topic.
Buy from Amazon: $10.59
Emotional literacy is such an important topic for kids, and these books can help you really focus on feelings with your kids. Which books are you most excited to read first?
Sources: Edutopia, Bucket Fillers, Child Mind Institute, Mindset Works