Crooksie the Cat Books: Children’s Books That Teach Emotional Regulation and Kindness
This page may contain affiliate links. Learn More.
Discover Crooksie the Cat books: children’s books that teach emotional regulation, kindness, curiosity, and early learning through adventures.
Children aren’t born knowing how to count, recognize colors, manage big emotions, or solve problems with kindness. They learn these important life skills through everyday experiences, caring adults, and meaningful books.
That’s the heart behind the Crooksie the Cat book series.
Each book follows Crooksie and his lovable friend Churro as they explore the garden with curiosity, courage, compassion, and plenty of fun along the way. Designed for toddlers and preschoolers, these stories help children build early learning skills while developing emotional regulation, empathy, resilience, and confidence.
Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, teacher, homeschooler, or home daycare provider, the Crooksie books make learning feel like an adventure.
Why Stories Matter
Children understand difficult emotions better through stories and characters than through lectures.
When they watch a character feel excited, nervous, frustrated, curious, or overwhelmed, they begin to recognize those same feelings in themselves.
Stories give children a safe place to explore emotions and practice healthy ways to respond. Instead of simply telling children to “calm down,” books can show them what calming down looks like. Instead of saying “be kind,” stories allow children to experience kindness in action.
That’s why every Crooksie adventure includes opportunities to learn valuable life lessons naturally through engaging characters and playful storytelling.
Building Emotional Regulation Through Books
Emotional regulation is one of the most important skills children develop during the preschool years.
It helps children learn how to:
- Recognize their feelings
- Express emotions appropriately
- Calm their bodies during stressful moments
- Solve problems peacefully
- Build resilience
- Develop empathy for others
These aren’t skills children master overnight. They grow through repetition, practice, seeing lots of examples, and gentle guidance.
Books become wonderful conversation starters that allow children to talk about feelings before they’re experiencing them in real life.
Learning Through Play and Curiosity
The Crooksie books are built around the idea that children learn best through exploration, play, and wonder.
Each story encourages children to ask questions, notice details, solve problems, and celebrate discovery.
Rather than focusing on memorization alone, the books invite children to become active participants in learning. There’s even an easter egg in every book. It’s shown on the first page, but appears hidden in every page after, so you can play I spy with the book too.
After reading, families and teachers can continue the adventure through conversations, hands-on activities, nature walks, counting games, art projects, or imaginative play.
Learning doesn’t end when the last page is turned.
Why Emotional Regulation Matters
Children who learn healthy emotional regulation skills often find it easier to:
- Build friendships
- Handle disappointment
- Solve conflicts
- Try new things
- Develop confidence
- Communicate their needs
- Succeed in school
These skills don’t replace academic learning.
They make academic learning possible.
When children feel safe, understood, and emotionally supported, they’re better able to focus, explore, and grow.
Meet the Crooksie Book Series
Crooksie and Churro Learn to Count
Learning numbers one through ten becomes exciting as Crooksie and Churro count their way through everyday adventures in the garden.
Young readers build early math skills while practicing observation and vocabulary. Perfect for introducing counting in a fun, engaging way. Each number features a feeling that kids will experience. The book talks about all feelings being okay; it’s just what you do with them that matters.
This book introduces 10 feelings that kids feel, and each subsequent book in the series focuses on one or two of them. The easter egg in this book is a cute little garden chicken.
Crooksie the Cat Is Curious About Colors
Crooksie gets curious about all kinds of things in the garden. Colors come alive as Crooksie explores the world around him.
Children learn to identify colors while strengthening observation skills and encouraging curiosity about nature and everyday life. And this book shows the fun side of feeling curious as Crooksie explores the garden.
The easter egg in this book is a beautiful butterfly. And the book has rhyming lines.
Crooksie Helps Churro Calm Down
Big feelings can feel overwhelming for little children. In this gentle story, Crooksie helps Churro work through difficult emotions using simple calming techniques that children can practice.
The story reminds children that every feeling is okay—even the uncomfortable ones, like feeling scared—and that there are healthy ways to respond. We can control where we let our minds take us.
The story explains how anxiety feels and how overwhelming it can be, but also how support and centering yourself can overcome it.
The easter egg in this story is a little squirrel.
Crooksie the Cat Coloring Book
Whether your child loves cats, coloring, or exploring the world around them, this coloring book offers hours of wholesome fun. It’s perfect for rainy days, quiet time, travel, classrooms, daycare activities, or as a thoughtful gift for birthdays, holidays, and stocking stuffers.
Pair it with the other Crooksie books for even more learning and adventure. From counting and colors to kindness and emotional regulation, Crooksie helps children discover that learning can be joyful, creative, and full of wonder—one page at a time.
More Adventures Are Growing
Crooksie’s journey is just getting started.
Future books will continue exploring early childhood topics including:
- Nature
- ABCs
- Anger
- Feeling loved
- Friendship
- Kindness
- Problem-solving
- Early learning concepts
- Social-emotional development
Each story is designed to help children grow academically while nurturing their emotional well-being.
Perfect for Home and Classroom
The Crooksie books are ideal for:
- Parents
- Grandparents
- Preschool teachers
- Home daycare providers
- Homeschool families
- Libraries
- Children’s therapists
- Early intervention programs
They’re wonderful for story time, bedtime reading, classroom discussions, or introducing new social-emotional concepts.
More Than Children’s Books
The Crooksie series isn’t simply about teaching numbers or colors.
- It’s about helping children become kind, curious, confident learners.
- It’s about showing children that mistakes are opportunities to learn.
- That questions are worth asking.
- That kindness matters.
- That every emotion has a purpose.
- And that learning can be joyful.
Who is Crooksie the Cat?
Crooksie was a real cat that belonged to our neighbors. His real name was Crookshanks, and they called him Crooksie for short. He wasn’t super big on the kids when they were rowdy, but he loved our garden and liked to nap in it day and night when he could.
Crooksie always stayed by my side when I worked in the garden, rubbing up against my legs for attention and sitting by my chair to collect pets when I was resting. He was my sweet garden buddy.
He had long, fuzzy hair and was absolutely enormous. His bigness was a huge part of his charm alongside his sweet and gentle nature.
He was a real friend. And he inspired me to get started on my children’s books that have always been a dream on the back burner. I have written multiple books for adults, especially daycare providers, but never got started on the children’s books.
One day, I was talking to Crooksie in the garden, and the inspiration hit me that he would be my main character, and he would be modeled after his personality. I made up Churro because he’s kind of the antagonist, and I didn’t want to give any real cats a bad name (even if they deserved it). I am in LOVE with orange cats, so I made him a small, orange cat to pal around after Crooksie and get on his nerves sometimes.
About a week before my first book launch, Crooksie disappeared, and I found out he had passed away, so he never got to see the books, but his memory lives on in their pages.
Growing Curious, Kind Hearts
Every child deserves stories that encourage them to explore, imagine, and believe in themselves.
Through gentle adventures, lovable characters, and meaningful lessons, Crooksie and Churro help children discover not only the world around them but also the strengths growing inside them.
If you’re looking for children’s books that teach emotional regulation, kindness, curiosity, and early learning, the Crooksie the Cat series is ready to become part of your family’s story—one page at a time.
Merchandise
For more books and products that I have created to support learning and daycare businesses, check these out:
Crooksie Corner: Books, Merch & Creative Fun
Fun Cat Coloring Sheets
I found these adorable cat coloring sheets on Etsy, and my kids LOVE them!
