We have searched high and low to find the absolute best books about feelings and emotions for toddlers!
After you’ve enjoyed these wonderful books about big feelings for little ones, take a peek at our best books for one year olds post!
Books About Feelings and Emotions for Toddlers
Reading to toddlers can be such a challenge. My daughter is 2 and a half and is just now sitting for longer stories. It’s so important to find books that are a good fit for young attention spans and that spark squeals of delight and joy!
Infusing stories during the day about feelings and emotions helps set the stage for self-regulation as they grow. Now, we might not expect them to be masters at controlling their big feelings or managing their temper tantrums. We do know that books that provide strategies and coping mechanisms also help the parents know what to do and enforce those positive messages during challenging behavior.
Plus, we want little people to grow into empathetic and caring people who consider one another’s feelings and emotions.
Another of our favorite ways to regulate big emotions is through yoga! Grab our free animal yoga cards, perfect for the home or classroom, by filling out the form below.
We hope you love these toddler stories about feelings! Which one is your favorite? If you have preschool children, check out our list of the best feelings and emotions books for preschoolers!
Books About Identifying Feelings and Emotions
It can be hard for toddlers to determine how someone is feeling based on their expressions and their tone. These books are perfect for helping children become comfortable identifying emotions and declaring their own emotions, too!
Making Faces: A First Book of Emotions by Abrams Appleseed
This book is perfect for young children learning to read facial expressions. Full of real photographs of children in various moods and spotlighting the way we look when feel a certain way. It even includes a mirror so that your child can practice making these same faces along with the photos!
How Do You Feel by Lizzy Rockwell
A colorful book about feelings sure to intrigue even the youngest readers. This book spotlights kids on the playground and the range of emotions that we might feel while we are there. Happy to go down the slide, or sad because we fell off the swing. Or angry because a friend isn’t sharing or calm and relaxed resting by a tree. These are all feelings we can learn together!
My First Book of Emotions for Toddlers by Orlena Kerek
Using bright and colorful illustrations, this book is great for building understanding around the many feelings we might have each day. Each picture shows children feeling many different ways, so it provides a helpful opportunity to talk about the children in the picture and how they are feeling and perhaps, why they are feeling that way. This is a book you’ll come back to through the years to talk about big emotions.
How Do I Feel: A Little Guide to my Emotions by DK
This is a book that will be useful from toddler to preschool years. This guide to the emotions helps children recognize what emotion they are feeling but also goes into how your body sends a message to your brain, whether bad or good, and then you feel a certain way. Now that might be a little too advanced for a one year old but the illustratons and the text helps children understand that sometimes they might feel the feelings and not really know why. It’s important for children to understand that they might have big feelings sometimes and we will help guide them through until they are able to cope on their own.
How Do I Feel/Como De Siento? By Editors of the American Heritage
With only one word to each page, this book focuses on important vocabulary including feelings and emotions. Plus, this book offers that word in both English and Spanish. A great choice for introducing feelings and other vocabulary words as this short book will capture their attention!
Duck and Goose: How Are You Feeling? By Tad Hills
Similar in concept to the book above, this adorable book contains only one or two words to a page and that’s because the pictures are telling the story. We see Duck and Goose feel a range of emotions from scared to happy to frustrated. The book leaves the conversation open for children and parents to have together about what is happening in the story. A great book for toddlers to read again and again!
The Color Monster: A Pop up Book of Feelings by Anna Llenas
This pop up book is great for young toddlers to keep their interest as you follow the color monster on his journey through various feelings. The color monster is so adorable and describes how feels so well that this is a book that an older preschooler will love as well. Beautiful watercolor artwork makes this book so calming and relaxing!
Baby Happy Baby Sad by Leslie Patricelli
In this repetitive board book, we follow the baby through his day and see all the different moments that make him happy and sad. This book is so perfect for reinforcing two very important emotions, happy and sad. Plus the illustrations are adorable and quite funny!
Books for Toddlers About Feeling Upset or Angry
Toddlers experience moments of distress quite often. It can be hard to know how to respond as a parent and it can be very difficult for the toddler to pull out of their anger. These books help guide toddlers and families through these big feelings and work to get them to back to their happy selves.
Calm Down Time by Elizabeth Verdick
It can be very hard for toddlers to calm down when they are feeling angry. This book does the trick by modeling behaviors and giving children a quiet space to feel their feelings. Once they feel calm and comforted by an adult, it’s a great time to talk about what made those big feelings arise and how to problem-solve next time.
Little Monkey Calms Down by Michael Dahl
This book was my daughter’s absolute favorite book for a while when she was two. She strongly sympathized with the poor monkey who dropped his ice cream and so wanted him to feel better. The author uses calming techniques to help children understand how to deal with anger and by the end the little monkey is happily getting snuggles from his parent. A simple read but a great tool for your library!
No More Tantrums by Maria van Lieshout
A simple and short story about learning how to handle disappointment or anger like a big kid. By taking a little break and counting to three, suddenly this big girl doesn’t feel so mad anymore. A quick read when your little one is feeling mad and needs some big help.
When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry by Molly Bang
This is a book all about big angry emotions. Sophie feels really, really angry about her sister using her toy and she needs to take a break. So she takes an imaginary trip running, climbing trees, and watching the ocean. When she calms down, she comes home and everything feels better. A great story to read after moments of anger and tantruming.
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