Emotional intelligence plays a crucial role in children's development. It has been shown in previous studies that emotional intelligence not only influences academic performance but also benefits children's social and interpersonal lives. This study proposes a new strategy that integrates dialogical reading with visible thinking routines to develop young children's emotional intelligence. Children's books have been shown to benefit the development of young children's emotional skills. This study builds upon past research by utilizing visible thinking routines during dialogic reading of both children's books and self-made books to create an engaging and comfortable environment for young children to demonstrate and practice their emotional knowledge and skills. A mixed class of sixteen kindergarten and first-grade children, mostly immigrants from Central America, participated in this study. Through classroom observations and monitoring of the children's interactions and performance over time, the intervention was found to develop children's performance in these key areas of emotional intelligence: recognition, expression, regulation, and empathy.