BooksForTopics: top 5 picture books for developing emotional literacy

Guest blogger: Alison Leach

Alison Leach is the founder of BooksForTopics, a website that helps schools find great books to enrich their curriculums and promote reading for pleasure. We recently celebrated three years of our partnership with BooksForTopics, working together to bring high-quality books from their popular booklists into schools across the UK. You can follow BooksForTopics on X and Instagram.
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1. Why Do I Feel Like This? by Shinsuke Yoshitake

Shinsuke Yoshitake's books are beloved by adults and children alike for their inimitable illustration style and inventive philosophical texts which prompt us to think more deeply, more imaginatively about the world around us. Many BooksForTopics users are fans of Can I Build Another Me and will be pleased to discover more books in a similar style. 

Why Do I Feel Like This? looks at where our bad, mad, sad feelings come from and how we can make sense of them. There is no shying away from darker impulses, such as “I wish they’d trip over a rock and hurt themselves”, counter-acted by thoughts such as “Hating people doesn’t feel good”. A range of coping mechanisms are explored, such as distracting yourself, talking your problems through and realising that everyone feels this way sometimes.

There are no easy answers here though; this is by no means a child’s self-help book. It is a witty, relatable exploration of negative thoughts that asks many more questions than it answers, allowing the reader space to think, discuss, and draw conclusions for themselves. The book reassures us that a whole range of feelings is a normal part of human existence. 

Recommended for: children throughout the primary school age range, knowing that each time they return to it they will get more from it as their own emotional understanding develops.

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2. Ruby's Worry by Tom Percival

Ruby's Worry is an accessible mental-health-themed picture book that is a popular key stage 2 reading choice among primary classes, along with the rest of the Big Bright Feelings series.

Children love the personification of big feelings like worry, fear or anger and enjoy seeing how recognising and dealing with big feelings is preferable to ignoring them or bottling things up. In this book, Percival depicts a ‘worry’ as a bright yellow orb that appears next to Ruby one day and continues to grow when she ignores it, hoping that the worry will disappear of its own accord. When Ruby meets another child with their own ‘worry’ and asks them about their feelings, she realises how to rid herself of worries – she needs to talk about them. 

The book is known for sparking meaningful class discussions, supporting pupils to understand that ‘it’s okay to not be okay’ and appreciating that talking helps with worries. Ruby’s Worry is one of the most important and relatable books to share with young people, normalising feelings of anxiety and teaching readers about sharing their troubles rather than letting them spiral out of control.

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3. The Friendship Bench by Wendy Meddour & Daniel Egneus

A beautiful picture book that celebrates new beginnings and the power of human connection.

When Tilly moves to a new home by the sea, she's sad to learn that her precious dog Shadow is not allowed to go with her to school on her first day. Instead she faces the challenge of a new start all alone. At playtime, the teacher notices that Tilly seems lonely and suggests she try the Friendship Bench. A boy already occupies the bench and the pair form a bond as they work together to transform the old, broken bench into something beautiful.

The Friendship Bench is a warm and empathy-boosting story, which gently encourages readers to seek human connection and reminds us all of the difference that reaching out and making friends can make. Most children can relate to the feeling of having nobody to play with, or having to face a new challenge alone, so why not use it to encourage children to reflect on how to make new or isolated members of the school community welcome. 

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4. When I See Red by Britta Teckentrup

An unusual picture book that captures the experience of being swept up in an overwhelming emotional state.

When I See Red is a stunningly illustrated book that tells the ‘story’ of anger. Anger is seen like a storm: we see how the storm gathers and blinds, as well as how the storm heralds ‘the change’ that anger can inspire. The author’s choice of words to describe the storm complements the illustrations – stunning print designs – which show the main, unnamed character’s journey through her rage and ‘the storm’.

The end page of the book has a quote from Anni Lanz – a human rights activist who has a focus on refugee policy. It says, “Use your anger to transform the world around you” and this is the positive message of a book that focuses on anger, rage and fury – an emotion felt by us all and an emotion felt particularly keenly by children and young people with deeply held views. That is why this is such a useful and meaningful book for the four-year-old and the young adult alike.

It may be easy to cast this book as a KS1 or early years text,yet it is a powerful tool for discussion with older pupils too, highlighting the need for anger as a means to instigate change. As the storm of anger clears, what is left is a new confidence and a new journey, a new way forward.

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5. Find Your Happy by Emily Coxhead

Find Your Happy is a bright, welcoming book that is bound to get children talking about emotions.

Despite being called ‘find your Happy’, this book recognises that it can be hard to feel happy all the time, and that every day can be different. It gives honest advice and easy ways to cheer yourself up.

A variety of emotions are highlighted, including anger, worry and shyness. Each emotion comes with small tips and tricks that any child could easily use to help them feel better and help them embrace the emotion. In particular, the page about feeling sad and the encouragement given to talk to someone trusted is a particularly important one that could strike up many conversations and support children’s emotional literacy.

The wording and designs of each page are colourful, engaging and fun. Teachers find that the book can be a good stimulus for a ‘one-off’ lesson just as much as a series of learning about different emotions. The motif of a sloth animal running throughout each page is also an appealing addition which brings a subtle humour. It will no doubt leave readers with a heart-warming feeling and lots of great advice that they can use when understanding and dealing with different emotions.

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Peters are proud to partner with BooksForTopics to get high-quality books into classrooms across the country, and recently celebrated our partnership's third anniversary. If you're looking for more books to support emotional literacy in school, don't miss our BooksForTopics' emotional literacy pack, available with 20% off RRP.

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