Socio-emotional skills are important for children to learn at an early age. Often times it is hard to describe to a child what feelings are and how to manage them.
These 28 children's storybooks do that perfectly! Taking big feelings like anger, frustration, fear, and even happiness out of the abstract and into the concrete. Each incorporates daily problems children are faced with and they present ways to recognize and manage different emotions.
1. Everybody Feels Angry Sometimes by Dr. Daniela Owen
A book that teaches emotional management skills using a clear, straightforward story structure with step-by-step methods to come up with the four levels of anger and coping mechanisms to stay calm.
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2. A Little Spot of Emotion 8 Book Box Set by Diane Alber
A fun series teaches children social-emotional skills through 8 different books anger, anxiety, happiness, sadness, love, confidence, peacefulness, and how to recognize emotions. It teaches what emotions are, what affects them, and how to control or change them if they get out of control.
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3. Everyone Feels Anxious Sometimes by Dr. Daniela Owen
A relatable story for children explaining how everyone can feel anxious sometimes, but that emotion doesn’t need to control you. The story aims at helping children manage worries and fears and boost confidence and self-esteem.
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4. The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions by Anna Llenas
The Color Monster uses simple words and correlates different colors to the other emotions to make emotions easy to understand e even for the youngest reader.
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5. What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking by Tina Oziewicz
A children’s storybook about what emotions do when we aren’t feeling them as told by cute illustrated creatures. Which help children make sense of their complicated feelings.
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6. The Anger Inside by Michelle Clayton
Anger E. Motion is a little creature that helps recognize, speak about, calm and let your anger go. Clear and easy to understand, filled with tips.
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7. Leftover Feelings by Caroline Ferrari
Lily has a bad day at school and comes home with those same bad feelings she felt at school. Her family tries to find out what is wrong with her, but Lily doesn’t know how to express it herself until Bear comes. She learns to make sense of her feelings and express herself.
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8. Thank You Breath: Finding Peace and Power from the Inside Out by Jennifer Cohen Harper
Children will learn to use their breath to find peace when emotions take over and how to use their breath to energize themselves.
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9. Find Your Calm by Gabi Garcia
Find Your Calm teaches kids grounding activities and other strategies to regain their calm after anxiety has taken over. It describes what stress is and what situations can cause anxiety. It gives tools to overcome and help feel more grounded and secure.
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10. The Emotions Book by Liz Flecther
Louie is an elephant who teaches children that big feelings (anger, sadness, frustration, and happiness) are their body’s way of telling them that they need something. Louie teaches about the importance of trying something new, big emotions, and self-regulation.
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11. Pig’s Big Feelings by Kelly Bourne
Follow Pig and his journey of feelings and big emotions. Written in a clear and basic way that makes it understandable for young kids to understand, and it has a Glossary at the end that includes socio-emotional words.
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12. Be Mindful of Monsters by Lauren Stockly
Ezzy’s emotions have gotten so out of control that they have turned into monsters. Ezzy learns how to be mindful and not always have to let the emotion monsters in. The story focuses on how to respond to emotions healthily and honor your feelings.
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13. When I Feel Angry: A Book About Feelings by Sharie Coombes
A storybook that describes what anger is and how it feels. It shows what anger can look like and talks about how to overcome those feelings and what steps you can take instead.
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14. My Worried Worrier by Christopher Fequiere
Follows a girl in her daily life as her worries follow her around. It tells about how worrying isn’t all bad but how you can apply strategies, so they don’t get too big.
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15. I am Strokayger Than Anger by Elizabeth Cole
Little Nick is having a bad day and doesn’t know how to cope. He knows he feels anger and maybe even sadness. Follow along as Nicky learns the skills he needs to overcome his anger.
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16. My Angry Robot by Joel Acker and Melanie Acker
Anger Bot gets frustrated and mad sometimes and often doesn’t know what to do with his anger. Until Angry’s Bot’s builder teaches him all about the emotion of anger! Angry Bot overcomes his anger by learning that it’s ok to feel anger, the signs of it, and how to handle and speak about it.
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17. Listening to My Body by Gabi Garcia
A comforting story that reassures children that all emotions and body responses that come with certain emotions are normal. Listening to My Body helps to develop a sense of self-awareness and self-regulation.
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18. Wilma Jean The Worry Machine by Julia Cook
Wilma Jean feels all the sensations that accompany worrying, an achy stomach, sweaty palms, and a hot face. She is known as a worrying machine. She will learn how to identify and give words to her worries.
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19. How I Feel: Luke’s Day At The Zoo by Nariella Sanders
Read along as Luke’s day at the zoo doesn’t go as planned, and he is filled with emotions like envy, anger, jealousy, and anger. A story filled with rhymes, exciting characters, and strategies for recognizing and managing emotions.
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20. Roaring Mad Riley by Allison Szczecinski M.E.D
A story about anger management told by Riley, an adorable T-Rex, and other friendly dinosaurs. Reily finds out how to keep calm by breathing, shaking it out, and counting.
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21. The Rainbow in My Heart by Jessica Urlichs
A rhyming picture book shows that people can feel a wide range of emotions and how it is okay to feel it all. The Rainbow in my Heart shows how to express feelings.
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22. The Little Prince: My Book of Feelings by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
It incorporates illustrated emotions that children face daily like surprise, love, sadness, calmness, fear, joy, and anger. It helps children name and identifies what they are feeling.
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23. Way Past Worried by Hallee Adelman
A story that helps children learn how to manage worries and builds upon emotional intelligence skills by telling the story of Brock. Brock is apprehensive about going to his friend’s superhero party alone. Follow along as he learns the skills he needs to get past all of his worries.
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24. I Choose to Calm My Anger by Elizabeth Estrada
I Choose to Calm My Anger is a rhyming story about Jackson, who is still learning not to get upset and how to control his emotions that cause some of his negative behaviors. Read along as he learns methods of coping with big feelings like anger.
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25. The Boy with Big, Big Feelings by Britney Winn Less
About a boy who feels all of his feelings as big as possible, so much so that they come flowing out of him. Through tears, laughter, and screams, he expresses all his emotions to the fullest—a story about celebrating one’s emotions.
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26. The Choices I Make by Michael Gordon
Follow Josh during his week filled with frustrating situations with his sister using his things, his friends, and his parents. He learns to ask himself how he has the opportunity to make each situation better or worse.
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27. Train Your Angry Dragon by Steve Herman
Diggery Doo is one angry dragon who needs help calming his emotions. Read as he learns what to do when he gets angry or upset.
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28. My Frist Book of Emotions for Toddlers by Orlena Kerek MD
A picture book that introduces emotions, tells how it feels, and gives actions of those emotions. Teaches what feelings are, how everyone has emotions, and how good and bad things happen to cause emotions.
Learn more: Amazon
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