Raising healthy children requires not just providing for their physical health, but also their mental health. In order for any individual to develop and maintain good mental health, they need a set of skills and attitudes known as emotional resilience, or the ability to cope with failure, difficult feelings, traumatic events, significant life changes, and other adversities.

Emotional resilience lies in the ability to recognize and accept negative experiences for what they are and then effectively heal from them. Fortunately, there are a number of picture books out there to help children and caregivers hone their emotional resilience skills together.

Here are a dozen great choices …

Mistakes and Trying Again: 

• Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats
• Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beatty and David Roberts  
• It’s Okay to Make Mistakes by Todd Parr 
• The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

Difficult Emotions and Personal Experiences:

• Pilar’s Worries by Victoria M. Sanchez & Jess Golden
• When Sadness Is at Your Door by Eva Eland
• After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up by Dan Santat
• A Chair For My Mother by Vera B. Williams  

Scary World Events:

• Come With Me by Holly M. McGhee and Pascal Lemaître 
• The Breaking News by Sarah Lynne Reul 
• What Are You Scared Of, Little Mouse? by Susanna Isern & Nora Hilb
• Me and My Fear by Francesca Sanna

Several of these books are available digitally on Overdrive and Hoopla for free with your library card.