An engaging resource that will help kids navigate anxiety with imagination.
We all experience anxiety at some point or another; this book offers tools to help.
This interactive workbook, geared toward creative kids who are nervous or overwhelmed, encourages readers to learn new strategies for self-soothing and build self-awareness through drawing and writing. Reid and Williams begin with an introduction that explains, in kid-friendly terms, what anxiety is; they compare anxiety to a smoke alarm—helpful when there’s real danger but disruptive when it goes off constantly. A two-page spread of comics-style illustrations provides an evolutionary perspective on anxiety and its physical symptoms. The book often uses humor to spur serious reflection. For example, one double-page spread of spot art showing amusing “things that are seriously unlikely to happen” poses the question “What else is literally never going to happen, but sometimes worries you anyway?” Readers can work their way through art prompts—like drawing the design on a cape to wear while defeating a “worry dragon”—in addition to quizzes, gratitude exercises, and other engaging activities as they learn mindfulness and other coping techniques. Sections like “The Anxiety Toolbox” and “How To: Calm Down When You’re Freaking Out” offer tangible suggestions and simple practices to try. Digital doodlelike illustrations enliven the browsable presentation. Human characters are depicted with a variety of skin tones ranging from light peach to dark brown.
An engaging resource that will help kids navigate anxiety with imagination. (Self-help. 8-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-43380-5
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Rodale Kids
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
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