Reading children’s books about feelings is an effective way to help children from toddlers to teens learn to navigate their emotional world.
Books about emotions for children are a must-have in any home or school library because they are an effective way to help children of all ages begin to understand their feelings. This list of feelings books for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners (and older kids, too) can help children understand their feelings and the strong emotions that go with them. In addition, knowing how to describe, express, and manage emotions such as anger in healthy ways is important to a child’s social-emotional development and health. For this reason, reading children’s books about feelings and emotions to our kids at home or in the classroom is a great way to help children from toddlers to teens begin to navigate their emotional world.
Related: Social-Emotional Development Games for Kids
Related: Calm Down Sensory Bottles 101
Benefits of Children’s Books About Feelings and Emotions
Feelings can be confusing when we don’t have the words to express them; they can also be overwhelming and scary when we keep them to ourselves. Knowing how to describe our emotions is important to a child’s social-emotional development, as is knowing that it is okay to express our feelings and share them in healthy ways.
Related: Kids Yoga: How to Get Started
Books That Help Kids Understand Their Feelings
As a psychologist, caregiver, and now a parent, I have discovered many ways to help children understand the emotional body and self-regulate. Reading children’s books about feelings and emotions to the little ones in our lives is a great way to help them understand the treacherous waters of their emotional world.
I witnessed the benefits of reading feelings books to the many children that I had cared for over the years and my daughter. Finally, at 2, she understood basic emotions well enough to label them and communicate them with me. As the days went by I, found her basic understanding of feelings and emotions to be more valuable than gold.
The practice of yoga, time in nature, and social-emotional development games are a few other simple activities that can help children learn to self-regulate and understand their emotions. Another calming strategy is the use of calm down sensory bottles. Click the link to learn more about them.
I firmly believe that using these self-regulation strategies for kids, such as reading books about feelings (and anger management ) to children, can reduce the amount and severity of emotional outbreaks and temper tantrums both at home and in the classroom. I can’t recommend feelings books for children highly enough–stock your library!
Related: Books That Help Kids Develop Healthy Personal Boundaries
Related: Books That Teach Kids Important Life Lessons
Children’s Books about Feelings and Emotions for Toddlers to Teens
Look for these Children’s books about feelings at your local library, or use the affiliate links for your convenience. If you click the title of the feelings book to purchase, this website will earn a small commission at no cost to you.
**Click on the title of the book about feelings for kids for more information**
Books About Feelings for Toddlers
Making Faces: A First Book About Feelings
This feelings board book introduces five essential expressions: happy, sad, angry, surprised, and silly. Each is introduced with a large image of a baby’s face. Readers are asked to mimic the face, then pick it out from a group of other babies. The very last spread includes all of the expressions from the previous pages and a mirror so readers can watch themselves make any face they please.
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings
and describes how they feel physically, inside. Toddlers can practice articulating and identifying their own emotions as they listen to the story. 
My Many Colored Days
By Dr. Seuss (2 – 5 years) — This is a color concept book to use with babies or feelings and moods book to discuss with toddlers. At first, I didn’t particularly appreciate the colors and animals that were associated with different emotions. But, after reading it to my daughter a few times, I learned to appreciate this book and its simple message. “But it all turns out all right, you see. And I go back to being me.”
Preschool Books About Feelings and Emotions
Lots of Feelings
By Shelley Rotner (3 and up) — Children can learn to identify the feelings of others by reading this awesome little book. Simple text and photographs introduce basic emotions such as happy, grumpy, thoughtful, etc.
Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day![]()
By Jamie Lee Curtis (Author) & Laura Cornell (Illustrator) (3 and up) — My daughter and I love this book of fun rhymes about how a little girl feels from day to day. This book follows a spunky little red-head through 13 feelings beginning with “Today I feel silly…”
Glad Monster, Sad Monster – A Book about Feelings
By
More Children’s Books about Feelings for Preschoolers
Inside Out Box of Mixed Emotions
By Disney Book Group (ages 3 and up) — Get to know Riley’s infamous emotions with this unique format. With five fun storybooks, each devoted to a different Emotion, fans of Pixar’s Inside Out will treasure this special collection of Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust.
What Are You Feeling? Feelings Books for Children
By Baby Professor – Teach your kids about feelings and emotions so they can express themselves well. Children feel emotions string inside them daily. The ability to name our feelings and emotions and giving them a label leads to understanding them.
Books About Feelings for Kindergarten
Feelings to Share from A to Z
By book about feelings for kids helps children build and use a vocabulary to communicate their emotions. Unfortunately, some of the rhymes and word choices in this book were awkward and didn’t flow very well. Nevertheless, I decided to mention this book because it contains more feeling words than most books about emotions for children. We found it useful
The 5 Senses Workbook for Kindergarten – Feelings Books for Children
By Baby Professor (Ages 3 and up) – Learning about the senses is an easy way for kids to learn about the body and what feelings mean. Children can begin to understand their emotions and feelings and learn to respond appropriately due to reading this book.
Children’s Books about Feelings and Emotions
A Little Book About Feelings
The Color Monster
By 
(ages 3 – 7 years) — Bright illustrations and amazing 3-D pop-ups illustrate common emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and calm. It is both a delightful book to read and a great tool for helping young kids sort out their emotions.
More Books to Help Kids Understand Their Feelings
The Way I Feel
By Janan Cain (3 – 8 yrs) — The day my daughter said, “I’m feeling shy,” at only 2 years of age, I knew that she was learning how to identify her feelings thanks to reading this book. I like the note to parents in the back showing how this book can help children understand what circumstances make them feel happy, sad, jealous, and so on.
The Feelings Book
By Todd Parr (3 and up) — The illustrations in this book are fun, but this book does not teach about emotions as effectively as a few others on this list of books about emotions for kids. A few emotions are included (scared, brave, cranky, lonely, and silly), but most of the “feelings” are more about wanting to do certain activities, so it is not as effective as other books that help children understand their feelings.
More Children’s Books About Feelings and Emotions
Hilly Discovers Her Feelings
By Meytal Raz-Nave (3 and up) — Throughout this book, Hilly’s quest is motivated by one simple question, “How do I feel?” in response to different events that she encounters in daily life. 
While reading this book, children can learn about their own feelings and emotions through Hilly’s varied experiences. 
The Very Frustrated Monster
By Andi Green (3 and up) — The WorryWoo
Monsters stories teach simple lessons about many different feelings and emotions and how to handle them. This is one of several in the series. Links to others by the same author can be found on the same page.
Related: Books That Teach Kids Important Life Lessons
Children’s Books About Feelings for Older Children, Tweens, and Teens
The Feelings Book: The Care and Keeping of Your Emotions
By Dr. Lynda Madison (8 and up) — The Feelings Book will help children understand their emotions and deal with them positively. Inside, you’ll find tips for children about expressing feelings and staying in control, plus get sensitive advice on handling fear, anxiety, jealousy, and grief.
Understanding Myself: A Kid’s Guide to Intense Emotions and Strong Feelings
By Mary C., Ph.D. Lamia (9 and up) — This book offers a basic education for families in understanding, managing, and discussing strong emotions and feelings. The straightforward advice included also makes it useful for parents struggling to understand their children’s feelings.
The Survival Guide for Kids with Behavior Challenges: How to Make Good Choices and Stay Out of Trouble
By
Related: Best Fairy Tales for Kids and How they Benefit Development
Books to Help Kids Understand Their Feelings: Resources for Parents and Caregivers
Knowing how to describe, express, and manage emotions such as anger or sadness is important to children’s social-emotional health and development. These social-emotional development resources for kids listed below can help parents and caregivers understand how to help their children understand and express their emotions in healthy ways. The skills I have developed due to reading these books have helped me navigate the treacherous waters of helping my spirited daughter understand her emotional world.
Feelings Flash Cards
Todd Parr’s flashcards do a great job of helping kids understand their feelings. These 20 sturdy flashcards with 40 different emotions make understanding feelings fun! Each card shows two opposite feelings, one on each side, rendered in words and lively pictures. Kids will learn what it means to feel silly and serious, calm and nervous, brave and scared, etc.
The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind
By Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson — This is one of my absolute favorite parenting books. The 
The Whole-Brain Child Workbook
By Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson — This workbook allows readers to think more deeply about how the ideas inside it fit their own parenting approach. It also shares specific and practical ways to implement the concepts explained with dozens of clear, practical, and age-specific exercises and activities to assist in brain development.
Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child The Heart of Parenting
By 
How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk
By
Related: 15 Reasons to Climb a Tree and Other Benefits of Risky Play
Self-Regulation Books and Resources for Children from Toddlers to Teens
Reading children’s books about feelings can be an effective way to help kids and teens learn to manage their emotions. Learning how to express emotions is important to a child’s social-emotional health. This list of feelings books for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners, can help children understand emotions and express feelings in healthy ways.
We have also compiled a list of books to help kids understand and manage their anger. For more information, check out this awesome collection of Children’s Books about Anger Management.
Reading fairy tales aloud to our children is another way for them to understand how they feel and who they are in the world. Click on the link to learn more.
Playing Social-Emotional Development Games for Kids is another easy way to help kids begin to understand their feelings. Click on the link to see an awesome collection of social-emotional games that you can try.
Yoga practice is another wonderful way to help children learn to calm down and regulate their emotional states. Have a look at Kids Yoga: How to Get Started or look at this list of FREE yoga videos for kids to learn more.
Calm down sensory bottles and getting outside in nature are two more great ways to help children understand their emotions and develop mindfulness. We have a whole slew of outside activities you can try with the kids, and you can find lots of sensory bottle recipes in Calm Down Sensory Bottles 101.
Don’t forget to choose joy… and remember that it is always your choice. 😉
Learn more about Rhythms of Play–> HERE.
These are fantastic books, and a few are our favorites! I love that you suggest going to the library too—that’s totally my go-to move. And it’s nice to see another fan of Whole-Brain Child. Totally changed how I viewed development and tantrums. p.s. I found your site through the EBA forum 🙂 Nice to meet another parenting blogger!
Thanks for coming by for a visit from EBA Nina! So glad to meet you as well. The whole brain child is fantastic isn’t it!?
Why people still make use of to read news papers when in this technological world all is accessible
on web?
Hi, mom blog! Can you tell me a bit more?