Eric Makes a Splash by Emily Mackenzie (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Books that deal with children's anxiety issues in a thoughtful and sensitive way are so valuable as part of a child's early years...
It sometimes feels that children have even more stress piled onto their little shoulders at an earlier and earlier age than ever before. It's quite natural for kids to be worried about a whole host of things and in "Eric Makes a Splash" we meet Eric, who definitely worries about all sorts of things.

Thankfully Eric has a really kind and thoughtful best friend who is always there to help Eric deal with his fears and worries.

But soon it's time to go swimming - giving Eric a whole new set of things to worry about. You see, he can't swim and he worries about getting his fur wet, getting water in his eyes or sinking to the bottom of the pool.

Everyone knows how much fun swimming can be - so Eric decides to be very brave, and along with his best friend he soon realises that he's having a whale of a time, and has forgotten to be scared at all.

It's also Eric's turn to be helpful as his friend panics about jumping off the high diving board. Can Eric be even braver and help her too?

We love Emily's books (definitely check out "Wanted: Ralfy Rabbit" and "Stanley the Knitting Cat" also by Emily). A great little story to help those would-be worriers.

"Eric Makes a Splash" by Emily Mackenzie is out now, published by Bloomsbury (Kindly supplied for review).