Although children’s picture books are often associated with entertainment, they offer valuable insights into sensitive subjects such as loss and trauma, providing an accessible way for children to engage with complex emotional and situational experiences. Through the interplay of visual and verbal modes, picture books construct richer meaning that is more accessible to young audiences. However, less attention has been paid to how the visual elements of translated picture books are adapted for target audiences, particularly when addressing sensitive topics. Therefore, for the present research, five picture books on sensitive topics were selected to compare the verbal and visual modes of their cover images using Painter et al.’s (2012) model to examine the extent to which the target covers retain the inviting and affective qualities of the source covers. Taken together, the findings indicate relatively few differences in the composition of the cover illustrations between the Persian translations and their English-language counterparts. Despite these minor variations, both cover sets establish a similar atmosphere for children, supporting a comparable affective framing of the sensitive topics for young readers. The findings further highlight the Iranian publishing industry’s engagement with translation and publication of picture books addressing sensitive topics, as well as its apparent attention to the visual representation of such topics through cover illustrations.