Children’s Books To Manage Complex Emotions

Children throughout their childhood live on emotional roller coasters. In seconds they can go from joy to sadness, from calm to anger and from love to hate. There are many children’s books on this subject to manage complex emotions and teach them how to deal with the feelings they experience.

Fortunately, this infinity of children’s stories help mothers and educators in the arduous task of emotional learning for their little ones. Children still have to learn to manage their feelings. Let’s find out all the children’s books to manage complex emotions and help the little ones in the correct emotional development.

Children’s books to stimulate emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a skill that can be learned. Through it you acquire social skills such as confidence in your own abilities, empathize with each other, overcome obstacles and decide responsibly.

Therefore,  if you want your child to develop properly and be happy, it is important that he knows and understands emotions. The first step in achieving this is to help him identify the emotion.

Fortunately, an excellent tool to help him in this task are children’s books. In the range of values ​​that they can transmit during childhood you can find: the pleasure of reading and the identification of emotions.

Reflect together with your child in order to educate his emotional intelligence. In this way you will instill in him the seed of patience, perseverance, participation and empathy. The objectives pursued by these educational works are:

• Identifying personal emotions and feelings, as well as knowing how to recognize them in others.
• Expressing pleasure and satisfaction in the manifestation of one’s emotions.
• Advance in the knowledge of language through the enrichment of the emotional lexicon.
• Develop self-confidence and self-confidence.
• Stimulating empathy as the basis of solidarity.

Use of children’s stories and books

This type of children’s stories and books are specifically designed to facilitate dialogue with children about educational topics relevant to early childhood. Do not forget that these tools are taught in a play context that adapts to the child’s language and way of thinking.

The richness of this bibliography focused on emotional intelligence will provide children with the necessary aptitude to freely express what they think, in a simple form. Hence the idea of ​​explaining abstract words in a practical, interesting and simple way.

Children’s books to manage complex emotions

Children’s books on fear and insecurity

• “In bed, fearful!” by Isabelle Bonameau. It is the story of a little girl who, together with her cat, decides to scare the monsters in her room. In this way he faces his nocturnal fears, scaring ghosts to sleep peacefully.
• “The intruder” by Pablo Pérez Antón. Through the narration of a child obsessed with a ball in his room, the author reflects on the fear of the unknown. Furthermore, reference is made to group dynamics, to the change in the role that everyone occupies in the world.
• “Giovannin without fear”. This classic helps to recognize the feelings that paralyze us. The different types of fear that lead to insecurity, which grows and then turns into terror, a terror that makes you lose control. Whether it is darkness, loneliness or insects, any fear hides the fear of suffering physical or psychological damage. Teach your little ones how not to be paralyzed in the face of fear.

• “Peter Pan”. The fear of growing up, of learning new things is a reflection of common insecurity that generates confusion in the child. There is nothing better than appealing to this fantastic story to explain to the child what happens to him and to make him react to fear in a positive way.

Children’s books for sadness

• “Mother’s cry” by Jutta Bauer. The story is about a penguin mom who breaks her son with a terrible scream but manages to restore him through forgiveness. This highlights not only the importance of good behavior, but also the weight of the words and the emotions they arouse.
• “The child and the beast” by Marcus Sauermann. It tells the story of a child whose mother turns into a sad and cuddly beast; the little one decides to look after her to make her happy. This is a good option to read in the event of a separation or divorce, where it is essential to accompany, wait and understand to heal emotional wounds.

Children’s books on jealousy

• “The children of the Labrador”. This fable is useful for reflecting on childish irrational jealousy. This feeling leads children to feel confused, angry, misunderstood, causing aggressive behaviors that result in guilt and repentance. The secret is to transform these negative feelings into positive ones, seeing the feelings of jealousy as real “spoilsport” because they are focused not on one’s own happiness but on the evil of others.
• “The exchange” by Jan Ormerod. It is a funny story in which a baby crocodile tries to exchange her brother with one “of her size” but then a series of tragic and hilarious situations make her realize that her little brother is the best.

Children’s books on frustration

• “The milkmaid”. A fantastic tale ideal for talking about frustration, this mixture of anger, helplessness and sadness that many children experience when they feel unable to achieve something, when something is out of control and when they discover that what they believed to be the truth is a lie.
• “Capricci” by Susana Gómez Redondo. Not everything is roses and flowers, life also offers shades of gray. This book shows different moods that occur in a child from when he gets angry to when he makes peace through a story made of whims in the relationship with his parents, while he discovers the world and the first emotions.

Childish tales of anger

• “The angry princess”. One of the best children’s books for dealing with complex emotions. Through this story the child will understand that anger is not the best way to manage everyday problems, rather it is a natural feeling that must be learned to control before it leads to destructive fury.

• “The child and the nails”. One of the most complete children’s books for managing complex emotions; teaches how anger affects others. It shows how the presence of this dark feeling can cause harm to other people as well.
• “The goose that lays the golden eggs”. A classic fable that shows human greed and selfishness, which bring with them emotions such as desire, hostility, anger, frustration, loneliness, guilt and remorse.