Ruby’s Worry

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       August 22, 2018

 

Author  Tom Percival

Distributor:      Bloomsbury Childrens Books
ISBN:                 9781408892152
Publisher:         Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Release Date:   August 2018  

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Ruby loved being Ruby. She loved to play, she loved to swing in the park and explore faraway places that lay at the bottom of the garden, until one day she discovered a worry!

Now this worry was not a very big worry, but a worry none the less. It was something that would not go away. In fact, it grew, and grew and grew until it became a HUGE worry. The very strange thing was that no one else could see her worry, the only person that could was Ruby!

This worry, that had arrived in her life, and went everywhere that she went, made her very sad. She really did not know how to go about getting rid of it as it just seemed to hang about, making her days not very bright and happy any more.

In Ruby’s Worry, Tom Percival goes about addressing the problem of worry in a small child’s life, in a manner that is sensitive, perceptive and very enjoyable. The illustrations as always with his books are clear, colourful and fit the storyline perfectly, to create the character of Ruby as a happy, joyful and engaged little girl.

By the end of the story Ruby has discovered the secret of how to make worries disappear, but not altogether, by sharing her worries, which makes them shrink, a bit like magic.

Ruby’s Worry is the perfect vehicle to gently encourage children to understand what a worry is and that while worries are a part of life, they don’t need to become HUGE, big, worries before they can be talked about.

As a book to share with a group of children, it is one which will provoke a range of ideas and discussion points, with the underlying message there for all ages to discover and remember, ‘that a worry shared is a worry halved’ as the old saying does go, which is something we, as adults, tend to forget and children need to understand.

The perfect book for read aloud situations, classroom groups and for little ones who do tend to worry.