A personalised book about understanding your feelings

Children feel things just as strongly as adults but have fewer words for them. Anger can feel like heat in the tummy, worry like a lump in the throat, joy like wanting to jump. A book about understanding your feelings gives your child pictures and words for what is going on inside. When they see themselves meet happiness, sadness, anger and fear in the story, and notice that each one can be felt without anything dreadful happening, those feelings become a little easier to recognise the next time they come along.

The story can let the hero visit one feeling at a time and find out what each one wants. Happiness wants to share. Sadness wants comfort. Anger says that something is unfair, and fear wants to keep you safe. The hero can help the angry figure to breathe, sit beside the sad one without saying anything, and notice that two feelings can be there at the same time, like being happy and nervous before a party. Perhaps it is fear that finally shows the way out of the house, because it has been keeping an eye on everything all along.

Think about the moments that tend to stir up feelings at home, and tell us a few: drop-off at nursery, losing at a game, a friend moving away. Use the words your child has for their own feelings, and let a trusted grown-up, a big brother or the cat be there too. The book doesn't need to fix anything. It can simply show that everyone feels this way sometimes.

For the youngest, faces and simple words are enough: happy, sad, cross. Pre-schoolers recognise drop-offs, parties and squabbles over toys, with a calm turn at the end. Six-year-olds can think about why a feeling came and what it wanted, and a ten-year-old can read about feelings that are harder to untangle, such as shame or envy. If it is mostly anger that fills the room in your house, there is also the Tantrums theme.

An easy conversation after reading is to ask where in the body a feeling sits. Happiness might tickle in the legs, worry might press on the tummy and anger might burn in the hands. Draw a simple body outline together and colour in the places. There are no wrong answers, and your child's drawing often says more than words. Then pull faces in the mirror: what does cross look like, and what does surprised look like?

You fill in the child's name, age and what they like, and upload a photo. The story about understanding your feelings is written for your very own child, and the thirteen pictures and the cover are drawn from the photo in the style you choose. Brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents or the pet can come along, up to five characters. If you would like to include something that has happened lately, a trip or a lost tooth, just write it and it is woven in.

The eBook is ready a few minutes after payment. Read it, change the text and ask for new pictures until you are happy. Then order it as an A4 hardback book, printed and sent to your door, or straight to the child as a gift. Do add the audiobook or the colouring pages. Start creating the book or read more about the prices. Would you like to see a finished book before you decide? Browse our example books.