September, 2025

How Picture Books Teach Young Children Useful Lessons

Woman reading a bedtime story to a young girl in bed

Photography: Mikhail Nilov

Ever tried to explain honesty, kindness, or empathy to a four-year-old, only to be met with a blank stare, a dinosaur impression, or a sudden need for snacks? Yes – me too! The good news is, children don’t need lectures to understand big ideas. They need stories.

Why stories stick (especially for growing minds)

Children learn through play, repetition, and emotional connection – and picture books deliver all three.

In The Science of Parenting, Margot Sunderland explains how emotionally engaging stories can help children connect with feelings, memory and meaning. When a child cares about what happens to a character, ideas such as honesty, kindness, forgiveness and consequences become much easier to understand.

Research also supports the value of moral storytelling. A 1992 study in the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment found links between children’s responses to story-based moral dilemmas and their wider prosocial behaviour. In other words, stories can give children a safe and memorable way to think about choices, empathy and how their actions affect others.

That is why a story about honesty or kindness can often be more powerful than simply telling a child to “be good.” Through characters, consequences and conversation, children are invited to feel the lesson first, then understand it.

Useful lessons for little ones

The beauty of picture books is that they can deliver big messages through gentle storytelling, humour, and imagination. Here are just a few of the powerful themes they can explore:

  1. Honesty & Consequences: In The Wizard’s Assistant, the greedy wizard Grimble deceives his town by selling poor-quality potions, and treats his kind assistant, Sincerus, with little respect. But when Sincerus sees the hurt Grimble is causing, he conjures his own magic potion and sneaks it into the wizard’s lemonade. This makes him change colour every time he tells a lie. As Grimble’s dishonesty is revealed, his business suffers. But Sincerus doesn’t give up on him, and eventually helps him turn over a new leaf. It’s a tale of honestly, accountability, second chances, and doing the right thing, even when it’s hard.
  2. Generosity: The Smartest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson shows a generous character giving up everything to help others. It’s a charming, funny way to explore altruism and empathy.
  3. Bravery & Friendship: The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright explores what it means to be brave, and how even the smallest voices can make the biggest difference.
  4. Managing Emotions: Ruby’s Worry by Tom Percival visualises anxiety as a growing blob; helping children understand their emotions in a non-threatening, relatable way.

These stories work because they invite children into the moral world in a way they can understand, and through characters they care about. They don’t preach, they model.

Using picture books to spark meaningful conversations

You don’t need to turn bedtime reading into a lesson plan. But if you’re looking to make the most of a good story’s emotional power, here are a few educator-backed tips:

  1. Ask open-ended questions: Simple prompts like, “why do you think they did that?” “What else could they have done?” And, “what would you do if that happened at school?” These questions build empathy, critical thinking, and decision-making, which are key elements of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), a framework supported by UK schools and the PSHE/PSED curriculum.
  2. Re-read (yes, again!): According to literacy expert Pie Corbett, repetition is a child’s superpower. Every re-read deepens understanding and gives children a chance to spot new emotional cues and patterns.
  3. Act it out or play with it: Research by Paul Howard-Jones and colleagues points to the creative benefits of play, which supports the idea of helping children explore stories actively through drama, role-play and imaginative response. Try acting out a scene or letting your child come up with their own ending.

Final thoughts

If you’re navigating tricky conversations about honesty, fairness, or forgiveness, stories can offer a gentle entry point. Children are far more likely to reflect on their own actions when they’re empathising with a character like Sincerus – someone who sees wrong, takes action, and, even after being treated badly, still chooses kindness.

The Wizard’s Assistant was written for children who are just starting to wrestle with right and wrong, and who need to see that change is possible, even for someone like Grimble. Magic helps, of course!

You can explore The Wizard’s Assistant and other kindness-filled resources at Mummy’s Fables, where useful and relatable lessons are wrapped in magical mischief and fun.

References

Sunderland, M. (2016). The Science of Parenting: How Today’s Brain Research Can Help You Raise Happy, Emotionally Balanced Children (2nd ed.). DK.

Weidman, C. S., & Strayhorn, J. M. (1992). Relationships between children’s prosocial behaviors and choices in story dilemmas. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 10(4), 330–341.

Corbett, P. (2013). Story Reading into Writing. Talk for Writing.

Corbett, P. (n.d.). Pie Corbett’s Reading Spine. Scholastic.

Howard-Jones, P. A., Taylor, J., & Sutton, L. (2001). The effects of play on the creativity of young children. Early Child Development and Care, 172(4), 323–328.