"Ruby's Worry" by Tom Percival first introduces a happy-go-lucky little girl named Ruby who doesn't have a care in the world.
But as Ruby gets older, she suddenly meets something strange while playing. A worry, who starts off tiny but seems to grow with Ruby's fears and anxieties, until she gets to a point where her worry can fill half the school bus, and take up an entire row in the cinema.
Ruby's worry shows no signs of disappearing or even shrinking a bit. Until one day Ruby discovers that she's not the only child who has a worry - and soon meets a little boy with a worry of his own too.
Together they discover the very best way to get rid of a worry - by talking about it, talking about all the things that upset them or frustrate them, anger them or - yes indeed - worry them.
It's difficult to be annoyed about the fact that I'd been working on a picture book manuscript about this very subject, with C quite often suffering from anxiety and worry over what seems (to us adults) to be the silliest things, but to a child are very real and very upsetting feelings and things.
Tom has delivered the perfect analogy for kids who have worries, with his annoying monobrow monsters who hover in the background ready to grow and grow until they ruin a perfect day.
Really beautifully told this, and the illustrations are perfect too.
C's best bit: Ruby in the cinema with her worry hogging a whole row of seats (and probably stealing all the popcorn!)
Daddy's favourite bit: It's such an important topic for a children's book and one we're very familiar with. Encouraging children to talk about their worries and fears - not just with adults but with other kids too - is a fantastic method to tackle a problem that is very real for a lot of kids C's age and even younger.
"Ruby's Worry" by Tom Percival is out now, published by Bloomsbury Children's Books (Kindly supplied for review).