Thoughtful books for children, families & classrooms
Children’s books for big feelings, brave conversations, and growing hearts.
Discover curated kids’ book lists about emotions, grief, inclusion, kindness, friendship, identity, and the everyday moments that help children grow.
Handpicked, read-aloud tested, and chosen with care by a fellow parent.
On the shelf now
Inclusion & Belonging
Eight picture books, one gentle conversation.
Explore by theme
Book Categories
Find the right books for the conversation your child, family, or classroom needs today — from first worries to the hardest goodbyes.
Big Emotions
Books about anger, sadness, frustration, worry, and naming feelings.
Grief & Loss
Gentle books about missing someone, remembering, and finding comfort.
Inclusion & Belonging
Stories that celebrate differences and help every child feel welcome.
Friendship
Books about making friends, solving conflicts, and caring for others.
Kindness & Empathy
Stories that encourage compassion, generosity, and understanding.
Anxiety & Worries
Books to support brave moments, nervous feelings, and calming strategies.
Family Changes
Books about divorce, new siblings, moving, adoption, and different families.
Self-Love & Identity
Books that help children celebrate who they are and what makes them unique.
Every list is a starting point — take what serves your family and leave the rest.
Visit the book shop
Photograph by the Bookes Book Club shelf
Feature of the month
This month’s theme: Inclusion & Belonging
This month we’re exploring what it means to make room for others, celebrate differences, and help every child feel like they belong.
Conversation starters
- 01What does it mean to feel included?
- 02Have you ever felt left out? What helped?
- 03How can we make someone feel welcome?
- 04What is something special or unique about you?
Booke’s Pick
All Are Welcome
A gentle first read about every child having a place.
Mike’s Pick
The Day You Begin
For the courage it takes to walk into a new room.
Joey’s Pick
Strictly No Elephants
A small story about making room and making friends.
About me
A shelf built by a mom and a teacher who needed it first.
I’m an Inclusion and Language Specialist in an elementary school and a mom to a toddler. My weekdays are spent beside children with diverse needs, building language, supporting regulation, and finding words for feelings that are too big to name alone. My evenings look much the same, only smaller and stickier.
Bookes Book Club began before my daughter could even ask. I lost my father before she was born, and I knew that one day I would have to explain him, and losing him, to her. I wanted the right tools, the right words and the right stories ready when that day came, even while I was still learning to carry it myself.
I’ve read to her since she was about one, and that time together is my favorite part of the day. Somewhere in those pages I found the books that helped: which stories opened a door, which words gave her language for a feeling, and which ones we set down gently until she asked for them again. Those notes became the lists you’ll find here.
Motherhood and the classroom taught me the same thing: emotional intelligence isn’t a lesson we teach once, it’s a language children learn from the grown-ups around them. Naming a feeling, sitting with it, and coming back to it together is slow, unglamorous work, and it’s the most important work there is. These lists are my notes, shared, for the parents, teachers and therapists standing in front of a big feeling with a small person and no idea what to say next.
Read aloud, then chosen
Every title earns its place after being read with a real child on the couch.
Gentle with hard things
Grief, worry and change are handled honestly, never rushed, never scary.
Useful for grown-ups
Each list comes with the words to start the conversation, not just the books.
With warmth, from our shelf to yours