Emotions (Learning and understanding emotions for toddlers)
BEST BOOKS ON LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS FOR TODDLERS
Happy Baby Sad Baby (Fiction) by Leslie Patricelli
sA great book to introduce your toddler to the two most basic emotions: happiness and sadness. Helping them understand their emotions is a great first step to teaching them how to regulate their own emotions.
Grumpy Bird (Fiction) by Jeremy Tankard
As the name suggests, this unique story is about Bird who is too grumpy to do anything; too grumpy to fly, eat or play. Meanwhile all the other animals try to cheer him up with their kind offers to walk with him and even get a little bit of exercise. Funnily enough, the attempts work and soon Bird is no longer grumpy. The book helps your little ones put a label to their grumpy moods, whilst teaching them how to feel better and giggle it off if they find themselves in such a state. Applicable to adults as much as it is to little kids and toddlers.
Taking A Bath with the Dog and Other Things That Make Me Happy (Fiction) by Scott Menchin
An amusing story that helps your child explore the variety of ways you can find joy and pleasure in the little things when all else fails. A great book to help your child switch from unhappy, unpleasant, irritable feelings to happy ones.
Glad Monster Sad Monster: A Book About Feelings (Fiction) by Ed Emberly and Anne Miranda
A book about monsters who have feelings! Yes that's right monsters who feel glad, sad, silly and mad. A book that explores their wide-ranging emotions with superb illustrations teaching children to identify and label their emotions.
Mouse Was Mad (Fiction) by Linda Urban
A very clever little book about teaching kids the importance of expressing anger and the most apt way in expressing it. For example, Hare hops, Bear stomps and Bobcat screams. How should Mouse express his anger? After lots of soul searching, Mouse finds his own path to expressing anger that works best for him. A refreshing book on the art of expressing anger for children.
The Way I Feel (Fiction) by Janan Cain
Janan Cain introduces kids to the concept of feelings using colourful pictures and simple language in The Way I Feel. Teaching them about a variety of feelings, each feeling is viewed as important and no one feeling is good or bad. It teaches children to identify these feelings and express them easily. A beautiful book to connect children with their emotions. It is also a very helpful book for children with autism.
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You might also find it helpful to learn some bibliotherapy techniques to help your child process these feelings by completing our online Bibliotherapy, Literature and Mental Health course, Children's Bibliotherapy Skills Online Course or our book Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading.
A big hello and thank you for reading! Passionate about literature, psychology, and life I launched Book Therapy as an alternative form of therapy using the power of literature. I train mental health professionals, librarians, teachers as well as readers on using bibliotherapy in their own work through our online Bibliotherapy, Literature and Mental Health course. We also curate reading lists/personalised book prescriptions for clients based on their individual needs. This is our signature personalised reading service.
You can also check out Book Therapy’s other free reading lists and A- Z of book prescriptions (covering both fiction and non-fiction). These suggest books based on your existing life situation (e.g. anxiety, job change, relationship heartache) as well as interests (e.g memoir, historical fiction, non-fiction, crime etc). There’s also a Children’s A — Z of Book Prescriptions. Feel free to check out the blog for more literary gems. There’s also a post on my personal story of how I entered the world of bibliotherapy and book curation.
In this role, I have had the opportunity to publish two books called Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading and The Happiness Mindset, and write various literary essays and pieces for newspapers and magazines. I have undertaken bibliotherapy workshops for The United Nations, various libraries in New York and corporate organisations in the UK and US. My book recommendations have featured in the Guardian, Marie Claire, NBC News, Asian Voice, New York Observer, Sydney Telegraph and various other publications. If you are a parent you might enjoy a podcast I’ve recorded with speech and language therapist Sunita Shah on Raising A Reader & Storyteller. And if you’d like to connect, email me at bijal@booktherapy.io or www.booktherapy.io.
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