You know that moment when you lie down on the couch, your kid snuggles in beside you, and then you open up their favorite (or even a brand new) book?

As soon as you open it, their little face lights up.

They smile a bit, perhaps crinkle with concern at some parts. It’s unbelievably cute, but aside from that, there’s something pretty powerful happening there. Your kid is learning about feelings, and they’re seeing them right there on the page. Maybe they’re too little to tell you why they’re happy or sad, but they’re learning. 

And one way of doing that is through a bear’s friendly grin or from the slumped shoulders of a disappointed rabbit. 

Storytime wouldn’t be what it is without the colorful illustrated characters. 

They’re incredibly important because they show kids how emotions look and how others might react to them. 

How Kids Pick Up Feelings from Pictures

When you open up some of the children’s books out there, there’s no need to read anything. 

The pictures tell the whole story. Do you know who the master at connecting the dots just by looking at pictures is? Your kid. 

That’s their little superpower, and here’s how they do it.

Faces Tell Their Own Story

For a kid, the face of a character is a topic on its own. They zero in on it right away. If the character has big, round eyes open wide, they know it’s probably a surprise or fear. 

The mouth in a big upturned curve? That’s ‘happy’.

Mouth turned down? Sad. 

What Body Language Tells Children

Kids are great at reading the character’s whole body, and they actually notice the stuff you and I would skim over. 

If the character is jumping and has their arms in the air, they’ll know they’re excited.

If they’re slumped with their heads in their hands? Probably sadness. 

This is how the kids connect the dots and understand the reason why a character feels a certain way. 

Colors & Emotions

Imagine movies without any ambient music to set the mood – would be super weird, right?

It’s the same thing with children’s books. Except it’s not ambient music, it’s colors. 

A page filled with warm yellows, oranges, and natural forest greens will feel happy. Just imagine a sunny day. Perfection!

What about a page that’s filled with dark/gloomy blues and greys? That’s right – sad. 

Children’s book illustrators use this color trick all the time. It really wouldn’t be the same if the book were black and white now, would it?

What they often do is use bright spotlights to guide the child’s gaze to a specific spot (e.g., a secret chest, a valiant hero, a danger approaching), or they might use shadows and cold colors to emphasize that someone feels alone.

It’s fascinating to see a child process this information and actually get it right. But it has nothing to do with your child being super-smart; it’s the colors being used to intentionally portray a specific scene.

Why Kids Form an Emotional Connection with Illustrated Characters

Isn’t it amazing how a child can feel so deeply for a drawing on a piece of paper? They’ll worry about a sad bear and cheer for a little engine that finally made it over that big hill. 

Obviously, that’s a cute connection, but this goes beyond being cute. 

When your child sees a character who’s feeling something, they’re not simply passively observing it. To them, this is practice. They watch how the character’s face is, what their posture is like, and they try that feeling on for size, almost without thinking about it. You may not see them making the same exaggerated frown, but you bet that there’s some emotional mirroring happening there. 

But that’s not where the real magic is. The most amazing thing about this is that your kid gets to process their feelings in a safe, easy environment. And if they have questions, you’re right there to answer them.

Conclusion

From the parents’ perspective, storytime can sometimes be a nice little thing that you do before your kids go to sleep. And to be fair, yes, sometimes it’s also hard to do because you’re so tired from work and you just don’t have the energy. But you still do it.

That’s the parent. From the child’s perspective, it’s totally different.

Just think about it – if everything you know and everything you’ve experienced is 100% of a pie chart, then what your kid knows (their whole world) is only a fraction of that. For you, that bedtime story is just nice. For them, it’s possibly one of the most important things they experience.

They look forward to it. Sure, because they won’t go to sleep alone. But it’s also because they learn from it. Their imagination runs wild. For you, it’s just a story; for them, it’s so much more. And if that story is well-made, it has great illustrations that tell the story in more depth, it’s going to be a superb experience.

So, next time you read about that brave little mouse, just remember – it’s not a MUCH bigger story in your shield’s mind; and they learn a lot from it!