Feelings/Emotions
The Way I Feel
A story that allows children to identify and give language to different feelings. A way to normalize all the different emotions we often feel. A great conversation starter for families to talk about expressing feelings.
Author
Janan Cain
Illustrator
Janan Cain
Age
3 and up
Topic
Feelings, Emotions
The Way I Act
This books talks about the behaviors that go along with feelings and how sometimes we make good choices and sometime not so much. This is a great book to teach kids about they power they have to make choices about how they will respond when experiencing feelings.
Author
Steve Metzger
Illustrator
Janan Cain
Age
3 and up
Topic
Behavior, Feelings, Choices
Ruby Finds a Worry
Ruby is a happy, curious, imaginative girl. But one day, she finds something unexpected: a Worry.
It's not such a big Worry, at first. But every day, it grows a little bigger, and a little bigger, until eventually, the Worry is ENORMOUS and it's all she can think about. Then Ruby befriends a young boy with a worry of his own, and discovers that everyone has worries. Not only that but she also finds out that there's a great way to get rid of them too!
Author
Tom Percival
Illustrator
Joanne Lew-Vriethoff
Age
4 and up
Topic
Worry, Anxiety.
Separation/Death
Grandma's Purple Flowers
A little girl who loves her grandma often picks flowers on her way to visit. Especially purple flowers because those are grandma's favorite. One day, grandma passes away. The little girl is very sad. One spring day she sees pretty purple flowers sprouting out of the grass and this reminds her of her grandma. That makes her smile once again.
Author
Adjoa J. Burrows
Illustrator
Age
Thea Baker
6-10 yrs. old
Topic
Death, Loss, Grief.
The Invisible String
Sometimes when we are away from the ones we love, it can feel scary and sad. Luckily we all have an invisible string that stretches out to everyone we love and this string keeps us all connected. This invisible string means that no one is ever alone.
Author
Patrice Karst
Illustrator
Age
Thea Baker
3 and up
Topic
Separation, Relationships, Loss, Divorce, Death
Divorce
I Don't Want To Talk About It
When a child's parents tell her that they have decided to divorce, the last thing she wants to do is to talk about it. Instead, she wants to roar like a lion so she can't hear their words. This story reveals a range of feelings a young child might experience when a family is confronting divorce.
Author
Illustrator
Jeanie Franz Ransom
Age
5 and up
Topic
Divorce
Trauma
A Terrible Thing Happened
Sherman Smith saw the most terrible thing happen. At first he tried to forget about it, but soon something inside him started to bother him. He felt nervous for no reason. Sometimes his stomach hurt. He had bad dreams. And he started to feel angry and do mean things, which got him in trouble. Then he met Ms. Maple, who helped him talk about the terrible thing that he had tried to forget. Now Sherman is feeling much better.
Author
Margaret Holmes
Illustrator
Cary Pillo
Age
4 and Up
Topics
Trauma, Violence, Intro to Therapy
Speranza's Sweater
Speranza wears her sweater everywhere, hanging onto the last memories of her birth home, until it's threadbare. Like her unraveled sweater, Speranza must weave together a new story, bringing threads from her past and strands from her present, into a future of love, family, and the true meaning of home.
Author
Marcy Pusey
Illustrator
Beatriz Mello
Age
3 and Up
Topics
Trauma, Disruption of home, Foster Care, Separation, Change
Once I was Very Very Scared
This story is about a group of friends who are talking about one time when they remember being really really scared about something. Everyone shares a different experience with being scared. The friends also share how they behave when they feels scared. They also talk about things they do to feel better and manage their emotions. A great introduction to the idea of "fight, flight or freeze" and the importance of learning strategies for how to cope.
Author
Chanda Ghosh Ippen
Illustrator
Erich Peter Ippen Jr.
Age
6 and Up
Topic
Trauma, Fear, Coping with Emotions, Strategies for managing stress.
Coping Skills/Mindfulness
Breathe Like a Bear
This collection of mindfulness exercises is designed to teach kids techniques for managing their bodies, breath, and emotions. Best of all, these thirty simple, short breathing practices and movements can be performed anytime, anywhere: in the car on the way to the grocery store, during heavy homework nights at home, or even at a child's desk at school
Author
Kira Willey
Illustrator
Ani Betts
Age
Topic
3 and Up
Coping Skills, Mindfulness, Deep Breathing, Managing Stress.
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