Big feelings, big words: books that help children name their emotions
Dear Publisher and Friends,
Before children can explain how they feel, they need the words and the images to recognize it themselves.
Parents, teachers and publishers alike are looking for books that go beyond “cute and colourful” and actually give children tools to name, process and talk about what they’re feeling.
Below, three series from our Rights Catalogue built exactly for that.
Emotions as Colours
Texts & Illustrations: Canizales (Colombia) | 15×15 cm | Board books, die-cut pages | Ages 0-3
Five titles: Yellow · Red · Grey · Green · Orange
A gentle, visual way to introduce emotional vocabulary from a very young age. Each colour becomes a feeling – yellow for joy, red for anger, grey for sadness – giving toddlers a first, tangible bridge between what they see and what they feel.
Already selling in: Arabic World, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Simplified Chinese, UK-USA-EN
Fear of the Dark
Concept: Chiara Balzarotti | Texts: Guido Quarzo | Illustrations: María Marel | 21×19 cm | Board book with pop-ups + 2 masks | Ages 2+
Children are both afraid of monsters and fascinated by them. This series turns that tension into a tool. Through good-vs-bad monster characters, young readers project their fears onto the “bad” monster and find reassurance in Calmcalmquillo, the good one. Interactive pop-ups and two playable masks turn processing fear into a game.
Coming next in the series: Worries about Loss
Texts: Maddalena Schiavo | Illustrations: Raffaella Bolaffio | 28×20 cm | Board book with mechanisms | Ages 2+
A book about how children actually see their parents, not who parents are, but who they seem to be from a small child’s point of view. “This is my Dad when he gets angry: he’s scarier than a lion!” Funny, reassuring, and quietly profound: it helps children (and parents) understand that big feelings are normal on both sides of the relationship.
Coming next in the series: Mummy Zoo