Animals or Human characters for children's book?

[ChildrensBookAuthor810]

Hi everyone,
I'm currently writing and illustrating a children's book to teach children at 4-6 years old that they don't have to take responsibility for other people's emotions. The book will mostly focus on Type 2 children and I am wondering if the main character should be animal or human? Which one do you think your child would prefer more? I didn't want to make Type 2 feel uncomfortable when reading a story about emotions as I know that they can easily feel how other people are feeling.

When discussing about emotions with your child, would you prefer to read them a book with animals or humans?

I would be really grateful if you could also share some stories/experience about the time when you try to discuss how to handle emotions with your child. Thank you in advance! 😊

What does "Type 2" children mean?

Hi @Needmorelego ,
Type 2 children are more sensitive, empathetic, sincere, and warm-hearted. They are friendly, generous, and self-sacrificing, but can also be sentimental, flattering, and people-pleasing. They are well-meaning and driven to be close to others, but can slip into doing things for others in order to be needed.

I wanted to write a book for them to help them realise that they don't have to try too hard to please other people and neglect how they feel. :)

(Source: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-2/#:~:text=Enneagram%20Type%202%20in%20Brief,in%20order%20to%20be%20needed.)

The advantage of anthropomorphic animals is that it frees children of needing to resonate with the physical characteristics of a human character eg- I don’t have red hair so that can’t be me

lots of books have successfully used both types within one story- I would look at books that you consider great examples of what you’re trying to a achieve and see how they have used character types as vehicles for storytelling

lots of successful children’s books with aim to contribute to emotional literacy employ a visual metaphor for emotional responses- i’m thinking about colour in The Colour Monster or dragons in Daisy’s Dragons.

@ChildrensBookAuthor810 ok - I don't really understand all that.
However I love picture books and their illustrations.
As said above the idea of using animals does mean it takes away the whole "this character must look like me to relate" thing. This is good because no child will think the book doesn't "belong" to them and their society/community.