The Books I Wish I’d Had…
Kids feel everything at full volume.
The joy, yes, but also the meltdown over the wrong colour cup, the worry that turns up at 3 am dressed as a sore tummy, the sadness that rolls in from nowhere and flattens the whole afternoon. Somewhere along the way, most of us picked up the idea that big feelings were something to tidy away and apologize for. I'd love the little ones in your life to grow up believing something kinder.
So these are picture books that let a feeling be a feeling, no fixing required. Stories that hand a child words for what's rattling around inside, and give you a way in when "what's wrong?" earns you a shrug and a toy thrown across the room. The sort of book that starts a bedtime conversation and stays useful long after it's over.
Have a look around. There's more on the way.
My Feelings, My Needs: Helping Kids Build Self-Trust and Emotional Resilience
by Claire Stacey
Every kid knows the feeling. The one that arrives big and fast, before there are any words for it. The wobble in the chest, the hot prickle behind the eyes, the urge to slam a door or vanish under the covers.
My Feelings, My Needs meets a child right there in the mess of it. Through gentle rhymes, it helps little ones put a name to what they're feeling, work out what they need, and find their way back to steady ground, with a few simple things to try when a feeling gets too big to hold. Nothing gets labelled a problem. The feeling just gets felt, named, and seen through, which for a small person is often the whole fix.Feelings aren't something to fear. They're messages worth listening to, and moving through.
It's written for ages 3 to 9, and it's just as much a gift for the grown-up reading along. Lovely at bedtime, at circle time, or in the counsellor's office. Anywhere a child is learning that what goes on inside them matters, and that turning toward a feeling instead of away from it is a brave, good thing to do.