6 Life-Affirming, Feel-Good Picture Books for Troubled Times

Frederick, by Leo Lionni
Through his trademark cut paper illustrations, Leo Lionni tells the story of Frederick, a contented mouse who seems to be lazing around while all the other mice are busy gathering wheat, corn, and nuts for winter. When they ask him why he doesn’t work, he insists, “I do work. I gather sun rays for the cold dark winter days.” Sure enough, when the mice are huddled in their cold, bleak stone house, and most of the food is gone, Frederick provides them with a new kind of sustenance—he recounts for them all the glories of the summer until the mice are warmed with these thoughts and declare him a poet. Remind yourself to be like Frederick, and gather the beauty you witness in the world by stopping to notice and deeply appreciate it. Pause at sunsets. Cry at piano recitals. Grow flowers anywhere you can. These moments can carry us through the dark and drearies.

Imagine, by John Lennon and Jean Jullien
After reading the title of this book, you’re probably already humming the beautiful melody of John Lennon’s classic peace-promoting song. This new book, published in collaboration with Amnesty International, includes a forward by Yoko Ono. Jean Jullien illustrates “Imagine” through the story of a pigeon carrying a laurel branch above the city, bringing a smile to people’s faces and an end to two gulls’ squabble over a fish. By the end of the book, the peace pigeon has gathered a group of birds of every color into his wide, feathery embrace.

The Hello Goodbye Window, by Norton Juster and Chris Raschka
Is there anything that feels better than being enveloped in your grandparents’ love? This book captures how a little girl feels about spending time at her grandparents’ house. She shares all the rituals she and her grandparents enjoy, such as when her grandpa Poppy looks out the window in the morning and says, in a loud voice, “HELLO, WORLD! WHAT HAVE YOU GOT FOR US TODAY?” This story will leave you feeling as safe, loved, and entertained as its narrator.

How are You Peeling: Foods With Moods, by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Who could have guessed that fruits and vegetables would be the best medium for conveying a range of human emotions? This book encourages kids and adults to talk about their feelings. “When how you feel is understood,” it concludes, with a picture of a little strawberry kissing a melon, “you have a friend, and that feels good.”

A Little Book of Sloth, by Lucy Cooke
When all else fails to lift your mood, try fuzzy baby animals. This book features the denizens of a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica, who smile from baskets, clutch stuffed animals, snuggle each other, nibble carrots, take naps, and otherwise worm their way into readers’ hearts. Sloths are a bad mood cure-all.

Life, by Cynthia Rylant and Brendan Wenzel
This gorgeous book celebrates life in the many animal forms that it takes. “Ask any animal on earth, what do you love about life?” Rylant writes, and the animals answer: “The hawk will say sky. The camel will say sand.” This book wouldn’t convince anybody if it didn’t acknowledge that bad comes with the good in life, and so it does, in pages depicting a terrible storm and a dark, tangled wilderness. “But wilderness eventually ends,” Rylant writes, “And there is always a new road to take.” If it seems like nothing good will every happen again, Life invites the reader to trust the animals. “All these know something about life: that everything is changing. And it is worth waking up in the morning to see what might happen.”