by Virginia Ironside - £6.99 Hodder Children (2004)
paperback
ISBN 13: 9780340903179 | ISBN 10: 0340903171
Jenny had always been happy. She had a lovely mum and dad, a great brother (well, most of the time) ... But recently she had been getting gloomier and gloomier. It wasn't just one thing; it was everything ... She worried that she was getting bad marks at school and she thought she heard someone whispering about her in the playground, she worried when her mum and dad had an argument, she even worried about wars and bombs... until one day she woke to find a HUGE BAG OF WORRIES.
Wherever Jenny goes, her worries follow her - in a big blue bag! They are there when she goes swimming, when she is watching TV, and even when she is in the lavatory. Jenny decides they will have to go. But who can help her? Her brother says he doesn't know what she's talking about - he doesn't have any worries. She knows that her mum and dad will just tell her she has nothing to worry about, (plus they have worries of their own). Her best friend suggests locking the bag of worries up in a cupboard - but that doesn't help.
Eventually a kind old neighbour helps Jenny open up the bag & sort out all the worries - half of them just disappear because they don't like the light of day, some of them are things that only other people can deal with, and lots of the others are really a lot smaller than Jenny thought!
'Nonsense', said the old lady firmly. 'There's nothing a worry hates more than being seen. If you have any worries, however small, the secret is to let them out slowly, one by one, and show them to someone else. They'll soon go away.'
A funny and reassuring picture book that inventively visualises the feeling of being anxious and worried about things. Highly recommended.
(Price & availability last checked: June 2018)
In booklists: Feeling Worried or Anxious,
In categories: Childrens & Teenage Books,
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