It’s the season of summer book recommendations. In that spirit, we thought it would be good to share some books for younger children that contributors to our recent restorative parenting podcast said they’d found especially helpful in helping children develop emotional vocabulary and opening up conversations about emotions. The speakers agreed that ‘pretty much any story’ can be used to talk about what characters might be feeling, but here are some of their favourites. There are read-aloud versions of all of them on YouTube, along with fun craft suggestions and activity sheets.
If you’ve other story books to recommend we’d love to hear about them!
The Colour Monster: A story about emotions by Anna Llenas (2016)
A colour monster wakes up feeling confused and doesn’t know why. A little girl suggests it’s because his emotions are all jumbled up and helps him disentangle them. ‘You should try and separate them and put each one in its own jar.’ A delightful book where each emotion has a colour.
Suitable for 5-7 years.
Jabari Jumps written and illustrated by Gaia Cornwall (2017)
Jabari has learnt to swim. The next step is jumping off the diving board but the diving board is high and leaping off feels scary. Jabari’s dad tells him ‘It’s OK to feel a little scared’ and shares something he finds a help when he’s feeling the same way.
Suitable for 4-8 years.
An enchanting story, series and TV show where we hear about the different emotions of both Winnie and black cat Wilbur.
Suitable for 3-6 years.