Janan Cain Pens New Book Aimed to Help Kids Explain Emotions

Helping kids identify, understand and talk about their emotions was Janan Cain's goal back in the 1990s when she began work on her first book. Today that picture book, The Way I Feel, is 16 years old and the most popular book Parenting Press has ever published.

But last month there was a new twist to the Janan Cain success story: the board book edition of The Way I Feel, always popular with toddlers and young preschoolers, was for the first time our most popular book.

"The fact that The Way I Feel is now published in eight languages amazes me," says Cain. "It proves that parents and teachers everywhere realize the importance of teaching children more words for their emotions than 'angry' and 'happy.' It also shows that even very young children are capable of understanding those feelings."

Another surprise for both author and publisher: the significant sales in the special needs market.

"What I find most humbling is hearing that my books have made a difference in children's lives, especially those diagnosed with autism," comments the mother of two, now both in college, one as a graduate student.

Cain may have introduced the vocabulary for such emotions as "frustrated," "jealous" and "disappointed," but she says, "I myself have no words to express what that means to me: I never imagined that someday my books would be used by educators and psychologists as teaching tools."

Besides The Way I Feel, another Parenting Press best-seller is The Way I Act, the 2011 title created by Cain in collaboration with writer Steve Metzger to help children understand traits such as "curiosity," "compassion," "brave" and "persistent." It too has been licensed for a Japanese edition. And like The Way I Feel's English and Spanish editions, it's available with teacher guides and recommended for elementary school "character education" curricula. All four books are available in public libraries-almost 1,400 at last count--around much of the world, from Seattle to Singapore, Halifax to Heidelberg.

To post a comment, you must register and login.