Images of kindness and happiness in illustrated stories for preschool and first primary years children (2002-2022)

This paper deals with depictions of kindness and happiness in illustrated stories for preschool and first grade children published during the period 2002-2022. Children's literature plays a key role in children's social and emotional development and maturation. Children's literary texts place the child reader in a living reality with the problems and conditions that prevail in it. Through selected books, it is sought to associate emotions with Children's Literature, as they are also a topic concerning various branches of Psychology. The depiction of emotions in works for preschool and early school-age children allows us to study the way psychological impressions are formed. Engaging with illustrated books encourages children to discover and understand emotions by resorting to their own experiences and adopting a different way of thinking. The content analysis of ten books on the themes of kindness and happiness and a case study on their use in kindergarten are used as a research method. The findings underline the importance of these children's books for the knowledge and management of emotions by children readers, pre-readers and all those involved in the process of producing books about kindness and happiness.