There is something special about reading with your young child. That magic of cuddling together on the couch everyday. Getting lost in stories. This group reading time doesn’t last forever. Reading in the first years of your child’s life will help you child with speech, vocabulary, and general learning. One of our often overlooked skills is social and emotional development for children. Thankfully, books offer so many opportunities for teaching. Books with a story about emotions for toddlers can be simple and sweet while giving them insight. At the same time, books about feelings for preschoolers can start to delve deeper and offer more for children to explore as well. This is my list of the best social emotional books for toddlers and preschoolers.
Sound Books
Everyone has bad days sometimes. This book about Alexander’s Terrible, Horrible Day is great to help remind children about feeling grumpy and how to manage it.
This series of books have a lot of social learning opportunities. I was reading them again recently when I realized how much I absolutely love them. The have subtle but clear messages. Examples include Get in a Fight, where Brother and Sister argue and have to learn to make up. There is also Double Dare, where Brother learns a valuable lesson about peer pressure. Other favorites are Take Turns and Trouble With Friends. No matter what you want to explore with your children, they will have a book to read!
It’s easy to skip the social part of social emotional learning. But social is just as important. One important social skill to learn is the importance of Consent. This book is a great introduction to the idea of consent to young children.
This book is less about getting lost, although the title wouldn’t necessarily give that away. Instead, it’s about following curiosity and meeting new, interesting individuals along the way.
I absolutely adore books by Mo Willams. The Elephant and Piggie books have a lot of social and emotional learning packed into them in fun, short, accessible stories.
Sometimes life is hard, and we aren’t always good at things. I love Giraffes Can’t Dance because in the end, the giraffe can dance by moving to his own rhythm. Taking our own road can be difficult at times, but this book reminds us that sometimes you find out something special about yourself by going your own way.
This Grouchy Ladybug is looking to pick a fight. But everyone is too willing to oblige. After spending all day trying to find the right fight, he finds himself back where he started, still hungry.
Jim Panzee woke up grumpy and everyone wants to fix it for him (sound familiar parents?). But Jim doesn’t want to do any of those things. In Grumpy Monkey, learn the value of giving space for your grumpiness before trying to fix things.
I read this book frequently to remind my children, I’ll Always Love You. When little bear breaks his moms favorite bowl, will she still love him? My favorite part is that it addresses him repairing the harm at the end as well.
How does Little Joe Chickapig know what path is right for him? Hear about all the inspiration and people who came before him and took their own paths, even though it wasn’t what everyone else was doing.
Sometimes you just need to take a deep breath. Mindfulness is not just about taking singular breaths when upset. It’s about having regular mindfulness and checking in.
Setting boundaries isn’t always easy. So practicing saying No and standing up for what is right is important.
Crispen is Not Your Typical Dragon. Instead of breathing fire, Crispen breathes whatever is needed in the moment. Join his journey of self acceptance.
I will admit I love this book because I love it as sung by the Dresden Dolls. Even so, Pierre doesn’t care about listening or doing anything his parents say. But after being eaten by a lion, Pierre starts to care a little more.
This story is almost more for adults than for children. But the child in The Rabbit Listened has something disappointing happen, and a bunch of different animals come along and try to fix it. Finally, the rabbit comes along and just listens, giving the child the chance to process in all the ways necessary.
This silly book is about trying to make The Serious Goose laugh. It is easy to focus on hard emotions. Sometimes it’s nice to remember that silly is an emotion worth having and enjoying as well.
It takes a community to succeed. When a village is hungry from lack of food, it takes an outsider to show them that by working together they have enough. Learn how one community makes Stone Soup and finds plenty.
This sweet book is great for unpacking the swirling emotions that we all sometimes have. I loved that it didn’t spend a bunch of time trying to unpack the why behind the feelings, but instead focused on that they were there and how they feel. Absolutely prefect for children who have big feelings sometimes but can’t understand why. It also gives great visualizations and walks you through how to Weather Any Storm.
Sometimes we all get angry. And When Sophie Gets Angry, sometimes she loses it. What she needs is time and space to calm down.
Max is wild and causes all sorts of trouble for his family. After his mother has had enough, she sends him off to bed. His wild imagination steps in to take him off to Where the Wild Things Are. There they have a wild rumpus. But eventually, the fun ends and it’s time to settle down.
