10 Best Children’s Books About Feelings and Emotions

When we teach kids about emotions, we’re giving them a lifelong skill. Think about it. How often do we, as adults, struggle to put our feelings into words or calm ourselves when we’re upset? Kids feel those same big emotions, but without the language or tools to handle them.

Feelings books for kids are a safe way to help kids make sense of their feelings. Seeing a character who’s sad, angry, or scared helps them realize, “That’s how I feel too.” Stories give them words for their emotions and show them that it’s okay to feel big feelings, as long as we learn how to talk about them and work through them together.

These books are a wonderful way to help your child make sense of their feelings and see that every emotion has a place. Try reading them together, and you’ll be surprised how naturally those little stories can spark big, meaningful conversations.

10 Best Children’s Books About Feelings and Emotions

These books each offer something unique, whether it’s exploring big feelings, learning how to calm down, or being there for a friend who’s upset. Think of them as different doorways into meaningful conversations about what your child is thinking and feeling.

1.  The Feelings Book by Todd Parr

Todd Parr’s bright, bold illustrations and simple text in The Feelings Book make even tricky emotions feel approachable for your youngest readers. It is a great choice for 2- to 3-year-olds to start building their emotional vocabulary.

What’s unique about this book is how it normalizes every feeling, whether silly or cranky, without any judgment. This tells your child that all feelings are okay to have, which is the message we want them to hear.

Price: $6.39 on Amazon, $8.99 on Barnes and Noble

2. The Color Monster: A Pop-Up Book of Feelings by Anna Llenas

This pop-up book uses colors to represent different emotions, such as yellow for happiness and blue for sadness. The Color Monster somewhat ends up with all his feelings (or colors) together, and a little girl helps him sort everything out.

Giving emotions colors gives your child something concrete to grab onto. Children quickly learn that feelings can be identified, named, and managed, just like sorting colors. The pop-ups make it interactive and fun, which encourages children to read it over and over again.

Price: $20.88 on Amazon, $24.99 on Barnes and Noble

3. In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek

Kids will be drawn to the heart-shaped die-cut pages in this book. But what makes it special is how it explores how emotions feel in your body.

The book describes emotions as filling up space in the little girl’s heart. For example, anger can make your heart feel like it’s going to burst, while sadness can make it feel heavy as an elephant. This book helps your child make that mind-body connection by linking what they feel physically to what they're experiencing emotionally.

Price: $10.94 on Amazon, $18.99 on Barnes and Noble

4. When Sophie Gets Angry—Really, Really Angry... by Molly Bang

When Sophie gets mad, she gets REALLY mad. She runs, climbs a tree, and eventually calms down before heading home.

What makes this book stand out is its honest and compassionate portrayal of big emotions. It doesn’t shame Sophie for feeling angry. Instead, it shows that anger is a normal part of life and can be handled safely. This book gives parents and teachers a way to talk about coping strategies, like taking a break, breathing, or finding a quiet space.

Price: $6.46 on Amazon, $8.99 on Barnes and Noble

5. The Way I Feel by Janan Cain

This rhyming book takes you through all sorts of emotions, such as silliness, fear, shyness, or boredom, with diverse kids experiencing each one. Every emotion gets its own page with colorful illustrations and situations your child will relate to.

The rhyming makes it fun to read together, and seeing feelings in different contexts helps your child understand that emotions show up in all kinds of situations throughout the day.

Price: $7.64 on Amazon, $9.99 on Barnes and Noble

6. Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis

This book follows a little girl whose moods keep changing from day to day. Jamie Lee Curtis keeps it light and playful by showing that moods shift, and that's totally normal and okay.

What makes this book so engaging is its playful tone and expressive illustrations, which make emotions feel real and easy for children to relate to. It also encourages self-awareness by showing kids that moods come and go, and that how they feel one day doesn’t define who they are.

Price: $12.73 on Amazon, $19.99 on Barnes and Noble

7. Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley and Anne Miranda

This book features pop-up monster masks that your child can try on while you read about different emotions. Each monster models a feeling, like glad, sad, loving, worried, or silly, and talks about when they feel that way.

The masks turn reading time into playtime, so your child can step into and express emotions in a way that feels safe and silly rather than scary.

Price: $10.90 on Amazon, $17.99 on Barnes and Noble

8. The Invisible String by Patrice Karst

This comforting story helps children understand anxiety, separation, and connection. It tells the story of twins who learn from their mother that everyone is connected by an invisible string made of love, one that can never be broken, no matter how far apart they are.

What makes this book so powerful is its reassuring message that love keeps people connected even when they can’t be together, whether a parent is at work, a friend moves away, or a loved one has passed on. If your child struggles with separation anxiety, worry about loved ones, or is experiencing grief, this book can be helpful.

Price: $5.31 on Amazon, $9.99 on Barnes and Noble

9. A Little Spot of Feelings series by Diane Alber

This series personifies emotions as colorful spots that help children visualize and manage their feelings. Each book tackles a specific emotion, like frustration, worry, or boredom, with strategies for dealing with that feeling.

What makes this series stand out is its clear, visual approach to emotional awareness. By giving each feeling its own color and “spot,” kids can more easily recognize what they’re feeling and learn practical tools to cope.

Price: $56.70 on Amazon

10. The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld

When Taylor's block tower crashes down, all sorts of animals come by with different suggestions. The chicken wants to talk about it, the bear wants to get angry, the elephant wants to remember, and so on.

This book teaches something we all need to learn: sometimes the best response to someone's pain isn't fixing it or explaining it away, but just being present. The Rabbit Listened is perfect for helping children understand comfort, patience, and the importance of empathy.

Price: $8.53 on Amazon, $18.99 on Barnes and Noble

Tips for Reading Feelings Books with Kids

Reading about emotions is just the beginning. How you engage with these books determines how much your child will internalize and apply the lessons. These strategies transform storytime into powerful emotional learning moments. Here are some tips to help make reading time with your child more impactful:

Pause and ask

Try to slow down with these books. Pause at key moments and ask open-ended questions like “How do you think that character is feeling right now?” or “What do you notice about their face?”

Give your child time to think and respond, even if it means sitting quietly for a bit. Those pauses create space for deeper thinking and help your child practice reading emotional cues, which is a skill that will serve them for life.

Relate the story to your child’s daily life

Make it personal. When you’re reading about a character feeling nervous, say something like “Remember when you felt nervous before your first day at the new school? Did you feel like this too?”.

These connections help your child see that emotions in stories aren’t just make-believe. They’re just the same feelings they experience every single day. You’re helping them bridge that gap between the book and real life and build emotional intelligence.

Encourage them to share their own feelings

Use the book as a conversation starter. After you finish, ask your child how they’re feeling right now, or what emotion felt strongest for them.

What’s important is to model this as well. You can share your own feelings by saying, “Today I felt frustrated when traffic was terrible, but then I took some deep breaths like the character in our book did.” When your child sees you acknowledging and managing emotions out loud, they learn that feelings are normal, they're manageable, and they're worth talking about.

The Bottom Line

These feelings books for children are great for bedtime stories, and as an essential tool for raising emotionally intelligent and resilient kids.

When you regularly read and talk about these books together, you’re giving your child a vocabulary for their inner world and permission to feel everything they experience. Those conversations that spring from these pages are going to serve them way beyond childhood, and shape how they understand themselves and connect with others throughout their entire lives.

Start building that emotional library today, and watch your child develop the confidence to handle whatever feelings come their way.

For more resources on feelings and emotions feel free to explore our Feelings Worksheets.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you’re just getting started with feelings books or wondering how to make the most of them, here are some common questions parents often ask.

What age should kids start learning about feelings?

You can start teaching your child about emotions earlier than you might think. Under 3 years old, children are still learning how to communicate. You can help them develop an ‘emotional language’ by keeping it simple with basic emotions like happy, sad, and mad.

For example, you can use picture books to label emotions, and say something like, “The character is sad because she didn’t get to see her friend.” As they reach the age of 3, they can better express their thoughts and feelings.

A study examined how children’s picture books expose kids to a wider and richer range of emotional words than everyday speech does. Researchers found that regular reading significantly increases children’s exposure to emotional vocabulary [*].

How can I tell if my child connects with the story?

Look for clues, both in what they say and what they do. Kids who connect with a story will often ask to read it again and again.

They might bring up characters when talking about their own feelings. You might hear them reference situations from the book when something similar happens in real life.

Some kids act out scenes from the book or start using the book's language when they're describing their emotions.

Younger children especially show connection through their bodies, such as leaning in during certain pages, touching the pictures, or making facial expressions that mirror the characters.

Even asking questions or just seeming really thoughtful when you pause tells you they're processing and relating to what they're hearing.

What if my child doesn’t open up while reading?

It is normal for kids not to open up while reading. Some kids need time to process their emotions. The conversation about feelings might not happen during the book, but later, when something clicks and reminds them of the story.

What matters most isn’t how much your child talks, but how safe and supported they feel while reading with you. Research shows that children whose parents were affectionate during reading were more engaged, less frustrated, and had stronger reading skills[*].

So try to relax and enjoy the moment. Sometimes, simply reading together without pressure allows the lessons to quietly take root. Keep modeling emotional awareness yourself, and trust that you’re planting seeds that will grow when your child is ready.

References:

• Green, C., & Sun, H. (2024). Picturebooks Increase the Frequency and Diversity of Emotion Vocabulary in Children’s Language Environments: Modeling Potential Benefits to Emotional Literacy, with Pedagogical Resources. Early Education and Development, 36(3), 568–586. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2024.2423259
• Bergin, Christi. (2001). The Parent-Child Relationship during Beginning Reading. Journal of Literacy Research - J LIT RES. 33. 681-706. 10.1080/10862960109548129.