On Understanding —Read Together May 2026

Read Together · May 2026

On Understanding

Four books — one picture book, one for young readers, two for adults — woven around self confidence and expression and the willingness to show up in the world around us as our true authentic self.

May’s books came together around a question I keep returning to: what does it actually mean to be emotionally intelligent?

Not in the productivity sense. Not as a skill to optimize. But in the real, daily, sometimes-messy sense: noticing what you’re feeling before you react to it. Understanding why someone else might be responding the way they are. Staying in the room with an emotion long enough to learn something from it.

These four books explore that territory from very different angles — and all of them left me with something I’m still sitting with.

No pressure to finish any of them. No pressure to get it right. Just an open space to read, reflect, and grow — together.

The through line thread

Understanding — of ourselves, of each other — begins with listening. Not to respond. Not to fix. Just to be present with what’s actually there.

That’s the thread running through every book this month. Hold onto it.

Picture book · Ages 2-6

The Rabbit Listened

Cori Doerrfeld

“For every child (and adult) who has ever needed someone to simply sit with them.”

Taylor’s block tower falls. Friends offer all kinds of help — advice, distraction, encouragement, someone to blame. But only the rabbit knows what Taylor really needs: someone to sit quietly beside them and listen.

This book wrecked me in the best way the first time I read it. It is, in 32 pages, one of the most precise articulations of what good emotional support actually looks like. Read it with your child. Then sit with what it brings up for you — because I promise, it will.

The thread: sometimes the most emotionally intelligent thing you can do is be quiet and stay.

Young reader · Ages 8–14

Wonder

R.J. Palacio

"The book that taught a generation of children to choose kind."

If you haven’t read Wonder yet, this is the month. Auggie Pullman is starting middle school for the first time, and the book — told from multiple perspectives — traces the emotional landscape of everyone around him as they navigate kindness, cruelty, and the complicated territory between.

What I love most about Wonder is that it doesn’t let anyone be simply a villain or a hero. Everyone is trying to figure out how to be in the world. That complexity is rare in books for this age group, and it’s exactly right.

The thread: emotional intelligence includes understanding that everyone is carrying something you can't see.

Adult · The anchor read

Atlas of the Heart

Brené Brown

"An inventory of the human emotional experience."

Brené Brown spent years researching the language of emotion and found that most people can reliably identify three feelings: happy, sad, and angry. Atlas of the Heart is her attempt to expand that vocabulary — to give us words for the eighty-seven emotions and experiences she identifies as part of a meaningful human life.

There’s something quietly transformative about being able to name what you’re experiencing.

The thread: you can't navigate what you can't name.

Adult · The anchor read

Permission to Feel

Marc Brackett

"The book that gave a generation of women permission to trust themselves."

Marc Brackett is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and this book is his case for why emotional literacy is one of the most important skills we can develop and teach our children.

The RULER framework he introduces is something I’ve found genuinely useful in thinking about how I respond to my own emotions — and how I want to talk about feelings with my daughter.

The reading ritual

How to read these together

Begin with The Rabbit Listened — read it aloud, slowly, even if it feels too simple for the room. It isn't. This book takes about five minutes and it will change the conversation you have for the rest of the month. After you finish it, just sit quietly for a moment. Notice who reaches for something to say first, and who is comfortable with the silence.

Wonder works best read independently — give your young reader the first few chapters and let the multiple perspectives unfold on their own. The book is designed to be surprising, and it earns those surprises. When they're finished, the teenager question below is a soft way in. Don't start with "what did you think?" Start with the question.

For the adult reads, try keeping Atlas of the Heart somewhere accessible all month — on the kitchen counter, on your nightstand — and dipping into it rather than reading straight through. Look up a feeling when you notice you're having it. Permission to Feel reads better cover to cover, and it moves quickly. Between the two, you'll end May with a vocabulary for things you've been experiencing for years without quite having the words for them.

The common thread this month isn't a theme so much as a practice: noticing. The rabbit notices. Auggie's classmates gradually learn to notice. Brené and Marc have both built careers around teaching people to notice what they actually feel. By the end of May, if you've been paying attention, you'll be better at it too.

Discussion prompts

One question for each reader in your life — or all three for yourself.

For your little one

If you were the rabbit, and a friend was sad about something, what would you do? What would you want someone to do for you?

For your young reader

Think about the moment in Wonder that surprised you most — when someone behaved differently than you expected, either kinder or crueller. What do you think was going on inside them that you couldn't see from the outside? And has anyone ever surprised you like that in real life?

For you

Marc Brackett says most of us were never taught to name what we actually feel — just to manage it, hide it, or push through it. Brené Brown spent years building a vocabulary for the emotions we pretend aren't there. What's one feeling you've been carrying lately that you haven't given a name to yet — and what happens when you try?

A note on where to buy

Every book mentioned here links to Bookshop.org — buying through these links supports independent bookstores in your community, not a warehouse. Same books, same price, a better place for your money to land.

There's no right place to begin. Just the place you're drawn to today.

Start where you are.

Read what you can.

Reflect in your own way.

I'd love to hear what's resonating. Which book are you reaching for first this month — and if you've read any of them before, did something land differently this time around? Leave a comment below.

Here's to growing together this month.

A deep breath in a beautiful life.

— Britt