The latest crop of publications on developing self-esteem is timely, given the rapidly growing interest in what is being termed “emotional literacy”, and the Department for Education and Skills’s current emphasis on citizenship. The books build on work in the late Eighties and Nineties by pioneers in the field such as Jenny Mosley, who is chiefly responsible for the introduction of circle time in schools.

There is a dearth of good resources for teachers who recognise the importance of meeting children’s emotional needs. These titles go some way towards filling the gap, but they also indicate that more could be done.

Because We’re Worth It contains useful ideas for starting personal development work in key stage 1. Each structured lesson plan comes with lively illustrations that could inspire classroom displays on the emotions. There There are also suggestions for using movement - for example: “Touch your shoulders if you can think of one thing you are good at.” But some of these ideas are tucked away; the book is not user-friendly and does not have a particularly inspiring feel.

Because I’m Special is aimed at parents and teachers of key stage 2 pupils, and is designed to promote a parent-teacher partnership approach to emotional literacy.

The best section is the one on body language (some psychologists suggest that as much as 75 per cent of communication is through body language) but as Margaret Collins asks, how easy is it to create a drawing to express this? Her suggestions about role-playing body language before attempting to write and draw are spot-on, and this content could have formed the bulk of the section. There is much scope for developmental role play - for example visualisations and groupwork - but I suspect many teachers will be tempted to skip these in favour of the worksheets.

Dealing With Feelings has a clear structure: 20 lessons, each dealing with a separate emotion. It is good to see some theoretical grounding in the introduction, with its references to Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence and other research.

Each lesson begins with a story followed by a discussion and activities. The “traffic light” concept - stop (and calm down); wait (identify the feeling); go (list some solutions) - is used as a basis for a problem-solving approach to difficult situations. But the design of the photocopiable sheets is anything but calm - the hand-drawn artwork is far too busy. While this might motivate some children, it spoils an otherwise excellent resource. However, I certainly want to try the stories on my current Year 6 class.

By contrast, the uncluttered worksheets in The Powerhouse provide a useful template to spark a child’s imagination. The sections for pupil evaluations will help develop the skills of self-reflection: a necessary indicator of emotional intelligence. It is a good introduction to emotional literacy and a welcome addition to primary staffroom resources.

Mark Edwards is a trainer in the pastoral aspects of school management, currently teaching part-time in aBedfordshire middle school.In the shortlist for the Special Educational Needs Children’s Book Award, published last week, we failed to identify Lucky Duck as the publisher of one of the shortlisted books, Running on Empty by Anna Paterson