A Little SPOT of Feelings

Diane Alber's Scribble SPOT character puts on a detective's hat and teaches young children to identify feelings — in themselves and in others — by naming emotions and matching them to facial expressions. The interactive design is deliberate: this is a book meant to be read with a caregiver, pausing to ask 'what does this face tell you?' The social-emotional learning focus is clear and practical, and the series has earned wide adoption in school and therapy settings for good reason. The honest caveat is that the 'detective' framing is fairly thin as a story — the book is primarily a teaching tool rather than a narrative, and more literary picture books handle SEL with subtler craft. As a resource for building emotional vocabulary in young children, though, it does exactly what it promises.