The SEL Blog explores how children’s books, animal characters, visual storytelling, and VNEC support emotional understanding, observation, empathy, and reading comprehension.
These posts are designed for parents, educators, librarians, and community partners who want to understand how MeMe, JJ & Friends stories can support meaningful conversations about feelings, friendship, belonging, and emotional growth.
Children don’t always have the words to explain what they feel. Sometimes emotions look like crossed arms.Sometimes they look like silence.Sometimes they look like a child pulling away when what they really need is connection. That’s where storytelling becomes powerful. Children’s books have long helped young readers explore emotions, relationships, and problem-solving in safe and…
Social-emotional learning (SEL) matters—but not every child learns emotional awareness by circling words on a worksheet. Many children can identify the “correct” emotion from a list without truly understanding why someone might feel that way. They may memorize labels like sad, angry, or frustrated, but struggle to recognize those same emotions in real life, in…
Stories help children understand emotions. But not all stories create the same kind of emotional connection. Rescue pet stories carry something unique: uncertainty, trust-building, fear, resilience, recovery, and belonging. These are the same emotional themes many children experience in their own lives. That is why rescue pet stories can become powerful tools for emotional learning.…
Learning how to help children identify emotions using visual clues can make emotional conversations less overwhelming for children who struggle to explain what they feel. Some children shut down. Others guess. Some say “I don’t know” even when the emotion is clearly affecting their behavior. One powerful way to help children build emotional understanding is…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMay 4, 2026MeMe JJ and Friends LLC Announces “MeMe Memory” Featured in Indie Georgia Digital Library Collection, Expanding Access to Emotional Literacy ResourcesGeorgia — MeMe JJ and Friends LLC today announced that MeMe Memory, a title from its acclaimed children’s book series, is now available through Indie Georgia: Discover Books From Local Authors…
What is the VNEC Model? emotional lVNEC stands for Visual Narrative Emotional Comprehension. It is a learning model designed to help children use visual storytelling to recognize emotions, understand context, and explain what a character may be feeling and why. Many children can describe what happened in a story. VNEC helps them go deeper: What…
Tank noticed it first. Not with his eyes. With something quieter. The air didn’t feel the same.The space around him slowed—just enough to notice. He stood still. Tuffie watched from a distance. Her ears tilted slightly forward.Not sharp. Not alarmed. Focused. “Hold on, son,” she said, low and steady. JJ looked around. Nothing moved.Nothing changed.…
Uno isn’t trying to teach anything. He is just curious or observing. He’s not thinking about emotions.He’s not labeling feelings. He’s just… being a puppy. Puppies investigate their environment using their sense of smell, sight, touch, and taste. They use hearing differently. If something fall, they are out of there like a light. And somehow,…
When children read stories, they often focus on what happens—but not always why it matters. They may recognize that a character is happy or sad, but struggle to understand how and why those emotions occur. That’s where Forest of Friends is different. Forest of Friends is more than a collection of children’s books. It is…
1. Withdrawing or Moving Away → Sadness / Hurt Animals often: Children do the same when they feel: 👉 This is not always “bad behavior”—it’s emotional communication. 2. Freezing or Staying Still → Fear / Uncertainty Animals may: Children mirror this when they: 👉 Stillness often means processing, not disengagement 3. Increased Energy or Movement…
