Kids Books About Coping Skills: What Every Summer Reading List Should Include
Guest post by Make a Way Media, 2025 Super Platinum Sponsor
The long, lazy days of summer can be a gift for some children. For others, it feels too unstructured, uncertain, and even stressful. Then there is the added stress of the unknown, like going to a new summer camp or starting school with a new teacher in the fall. Coping skills are valuable for people of all ages. Kids books about coping skills not only model coping strategies but they also provide easy ways to talk about them.
The importance of learning coping skills early cannot be overstated. Parents, educators, and even parents play a key role in teaching these skills. Adding these books to your classroom or home library will help students build resilience and manage emotions effectively.
And yes—books can teach those skills.
What Are Coping Skills (and Why Do Kids Need Them)?
Coping skills are tools we use to manage strong emotions, navigate challenges, and stay grounded when life feels overwhelming. For kids, these might look like:
- Taking deep breaths when they feel frustrated
- Asking for help instead of shutting down
- Journaling or drawing to express emotions
- Practicing positive self-talk
- Walking away when they feel angry
- Using imagination or movement to reset
- Learning how to deal with worries or anger
Here’s the key: Those skills need to be taught.
We aren’t born knowing how to deal with big feelings. Coping skills help children handle big emotions and gain control over their reactions. Children need opportunities to practice coping skills regularly, even when they aren’t upset, so they can build confidence in their skills. Just like learning to tie their shoes or ride a bike, children need regular, gentle practice using coping tools. Stories are a beautiful way to help them begin.
Spotlight on Self-Regulation: The Foundation of Coping Skills
Self-regulation is at the heart of every healthy coping skill. It’s the ability for kids to notice their big feelings—like anxiety, anger, or frustration—and choose how to respond, instead of just reacting. When children learn self-regulation, they’re building the foundation for managing emotions, behaviors, and even their thoughts, no matter what life throws their way.
Teaching coping skills for kids starts with making self-regulation fun and accessible. For younger students, this might mean using a kids workbook filled with coloring pages, simple breath work exercises, and playful activities that help them practice calming down. These resources turn important concepts into hands-on learning, so children can explore coping strategies in a way that feels like play.
Free resources are also a fantastic way to support self-regulation at home or in the classroom. Online tutorials, printable worksheets, and short videos can give parents, teachers, and students fresh ideas for practicing healthy coping skills together. Whether it’s a mindfulness game, a self-care checklist, or a story about managing big emotions, these tools make it easy to teach coping skills in everyday moments.
Self-care is another key piece of the puzzle. When kids learn to take care of their bodies and minds—by moving, resting, or simply taking a few deep breaths—they’re building lifelong skills for handling stress and worry. Mindfulness activities, like focusing on the breath or noticing sensations, help children stay grounded and calm, even when they feel overwhelmed.
It’s important to remember that every child is unique. Some kids connect best with visual aids, like colorful pages or diagrams, while others prefer to listen to stories or write about their feelings. By offering a variety of resources, like books, workbooks, and even support from a therapist or counselor, adults can help each child discover the coping strategies that work best for them.
How Books Can Help Teach Coping Skills
Books can introduce coping skills in a way that’s gentle, relatable, and non-threatening. When a child sees a character take a deep breath before a test to calm down, or ask for help when they’re scared, they’re seeing a model they can follow.
When kids connect with a character’s emotional journey, they start to understand their own. That’s the magic of reading with kids. A good book can make learning about emotions appealing, maybe even fun. Some books include activity pages that help children express their worries and what they felt during different situations. This gives kids space to process in a playful way.
To teach kids coping strategies this summer, look for stories that:
- Show characters feeling big emotions (anger, sadness, anxiety)
- Offer gentle language to name those feelings
- Demonstrate coping behaviors in action
- Normalize getting help or talking about hard topics
- Celebrate progress, not perfection
- Encourage conversation about feelings and emotional experiences
- Address behavior and emotional regulation, helping children learn positive ways to manage their actions
Our Favorite Books About Coping Skills for Kids
This list has 10 amazing book lists full of books about coping skills and mental health for kids.
To put a new spin on coping skills, Make A Way Media’s upcoming book, Hope In the Nick of Time, is about using “hoping skills” to help kids build and find hope, even when things get hard. There will also be an In the Nick of Time Activity Book which includes:
- 50+ coping skills woven into fun, creative pages
- Affirmations, reflection prompts, coloring sheets
- Writing activities that help children reflect on their feelings and document their coping strategies
- Encouragement for unplugging from screens and tuning into self
It’s designed to help kids grow their emotional toolbox—and it’s created by a therapist who knows how much kids need gentle support in a noisy world. Both will be a valuable addition to your family’s coping skills resources.
How to Start Teaching Coping Strategies Now
Here’s how you can start supporting your child’s emotional growth this summer:
🟢 Create a “calm-down corner” with books, drawing supplies, and sensory tools
🟢 Use the Hope Meter™ to check in on your child’s emotions
🟢 Read books together that model emotional honesty and talk about them after
🟢 Try using coping skills and activities at home or in classroom settings to help children focus on their feelings and build social-emotional skills
🟢 Encourage writing or journaling as a way for children to express and process emotions
Because when a child has access to healthy coping tools, they’re not just learning to survive the hard days, they’re learning how to shine through them. These skills support human emotional needs and foster human connection, helping children develop the self-awareness and emotional regulation they need to thrive.
Make A Way Media and author Deedee Cummings! Deedee is the author of 15 children’s books including the new Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess 5-book series.
Written by veteran author, Deedee Cummings, the Kayla: Modern-Day Princess series is inspired by her own real-life princess and Broadway actress, Kayla Pecchioni. This #OwnVoices project is a five-part series set for Rapid Release in the spring and summer of 2021. Following the picture series will be a middle-grade series and a script to continue to tell the story of this dynamic and necessary character.
For company details, to see other MAWM diverse book titles, and to learn more about all of the Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess books, go here.
