"Miss A was VERY excited to read this book based on the cover page.  There is a die cut heart on the cover creating a multi coloured heart which is the depth of the book.  It is on each page and decreases in size as you read each page.

Review by a 6 year old - Miss A
"I was really excited when I saw the book because I thought it was about loving people.
It was telling you about her feelings.  Sometimes the girl is afraid or nervous or angry or happy."

Did you like the book? Yes, I liked the whole lot.  I like how the heart kept going.
What did you learn? I learnt about feelings. I learnt that sometimes you hide away your heart.

CONCLUSION
This book was recommended for toddlers.  However, Miss 6 really enjoyed it.  Given that emotional literacy is such an important skill to develop I would say that this book would be relevant and useful for toddlers AND school age children 8 and under (depending on level of emotional literacy).

It is a very simplistic book that covers so much. 

• It talks of having different types of feelings e.g.  big/small, loud/quiet
• It names a number of feelings such as happy, brave, angry/mad, calm, broken, heavy/sad, hopeful, scary/afraid, silly, shy, proud
• Not only does it name the feelings but it describes how each feeling may feel and gives an example or the behaviour we may see.
• The little girl's facial expressions aligns with the feeling talked about.  This gives adults the opportunity to talk about how she looks and feels and making the connection.
• It gave a place where our feelings belong - in our heart

One thing that I really liked about this book was that it was still in story form which will appeal to children.  The language used was very age appropriate and aligned with the illustrations.  The illustrations by Christine Roussey were simple but very effective and engaging.  It was very clever how they developed the story around the heart and the die cut heart.

The story ends with the author describing how her heart felt and asking the question "How does your heart feel?"  I like this for 3 reasons;

1. Firstly it allows children to consider that other's have feelings
2. Secondly it opens the door for the children to be able to express how they are feeling and may generate some talk
3. Thirdly it provides a statement that can be used going forward.  If you are unsure of how your children is feeling you can say "How does your heart feel right now?"

I would definitely recommend this book for both parents, Early Childhood Centres and Schools.  My daughter has read it a couple of times now and still enjoys it.  While the main character is a girl, I would say that it is still very relevant for boys and does not stand out as only being for girls.

When developing emotional literacy it is important that children learn to identify different feelings, name them and learn what they feel like and how they look.  This book offers all those aspects.   A lovely story which also provides great learning. I look forward to reviewing other books in this series by Jo Witek & Christine Roussey.

​Purchased from Booktopia. 

​The cost of a hardcopy was $18.75 + $6.95 shipping AU.

This book was reviewed by my daughters aged 6, 11 and 15 years old.

Review from a 6 Year old - Miss A
This was a book that needed to be read to Miss A. 
She was very excited when she saw the book's cover. However, I noticed that after a few pages she became distracted which is not like her when it comes to books.  We persevered and got half way through however unfortunately we did not make it to the end of the book! 

Miss A was happy to answer some questions.
Did you like the book? It was a bit boring.  I didn't really understand it.
What was it about?  It was about different parts of your body - like stomachs
What did you like about it?  I liked the pictures and that the nice monster was guarding the boy.

Review from an 11 year old
I liked this book and think it would be cool for readers my age.  It was interesting and taught me a lot about anxiety and the amygdala.  I felt that I could relate to some things in the book.

The pictures made it feel like a storybook but younger children might not understand a lot of what was in the book.  Looking at the cover of the book you would not know it is about anxiety if it didn't say.
I think it was cool that they turned the amygdala into a warrior.

Review from a 15 year old
There were a lot of things to learn from this book such as anxiety is common and everyone goes through it.  I like how they gave examples of anxiety and how they described anxiety as showing us we are about to do something brave.  I found learning about the amygdala interesting.

This book would be really good for kids who don't know what anxiety is as it breaks it down.  The examples in the book help to make it easier to understand and helps explain things. I liked the example of when you burn toast and set off a fire alarm and how the fire alarm can't tell the difference between smoke from a fire or from burnt toast - just like our amygdala.

I felt that some parts of the book such as learning about the part of the brain and some of the words used were appropriate for my age.  However I felt that the pictures in the book were more for younger kids.  Due to the pictures I would say that this book would be ideal for 10-11 year olds.  However I am sure some kids my age would learn things too.

CONCLUSION
I had heard great things about this book so was very excited to get it! I was quite surprised when I received it as I had assumed the target audience was much younger than it is.  

I tend to agree with all of the reviews above.  I thought that it provided a great overview of anxiety and I  love the fact that the author normalised anxiety and pointed out it is a feeling.  There was a great overview of the role of the amygdala and I loved how it was portrayed as a warrior.  There are many, many great examples which will help children understand the information presented. It gave suggestions for children to try when they are feeling anxious such as breathing.  There is also a checklist section at the back of the book for children to explore their strengths or 'the cool things about me."

I would agree that this book is more suitable for upper primary/Intermediate (9-10+ years) depending on the child.  I was expecting more of a storybook hence why I thought it was targeted to younger children.  However it is more of an informative book which is very creatively written.

Highly recommended.  It provides a fantastic overview of anxiety - what anxiety is, the role of the brain, how it can present and what we can do. It would be a great resource to have at home, in classrooms and in school library's.  I thought that it was a great price too!

The word naughty is a word that is used frequently to describe behaviour that may not be seen as acceptable.  More than often it is used to describe the behaviour of children.  We hear phrases such as ‘That is really naughty!’ ‘Stop that, it is naughty!’  ‘You are just being naughty!’ ‘She was so naughty today!’ ‘You are being a naughty girl right now!’

Naughty is a term that seems to be more likely to be used with younger children, yet what do they understand of this word?  Children appear this word from a young age and  often mimic adults by repeating the it without actually knowing what it means.  Over the years the more I have learnt about behaviour, the more I have come to really dislike the word naughty. 

So what exactly does it mean?
After searching a number of dictionaries the most popular definition of the word naughty is ‘(especially of a child) badly behaved; disobedient.’  Looking a little further there was a description of badly behaved in the online Oxford Dictionary.  I was really surprised to see words such, ‘disobedient, bad, misbehaved, misbehaving, wayward, defiant, unruly, insubordinate, wilful, self-willed, delinquent, undisciplined, unmanageable, uncontrollable, ungovernable, unbiddable, disorderly, disruptive, mutinous, fractious, refractory, recalcitrant, errant, wild, wicked, obstreperous, difficult, troublesome, awkward, contrary, perverse, attention-seeking, exasperating, incorrigible.

Given how often the word naughty is used, many of these words seem like an extreme way to describe children!  Perhaps that is half of the problem.  It is a very general word which is used in so many different contexts.

There are a few issues which I have with the use of the word ‘naughty.’
1.       It is generally used to describe a child rather than their behaviour. 
2.       Even when it does describe behaviour, it offers a very general description.  It does not really give
​          the child an indication of the behaviour you do not approve of.  Therefore what do they learn from
​          being called ‘naughty?’
3.       Behaviour is a form of communication – While they may not be communicating their message in
​          the best way, what they are trying communicate may be very valid!
4.       Younger children are often exploring their environment.  While their behaviour may not always be
​          safe, it does not make it wrong.  They are still learning about their environment.

​So while the word ‘naughty’ is used often, it is not an effective way to change behaviour which should always be our goal.  Rather than labelling behaviour, it would be more productive to first try to work out what the child is trying to communicate through their behaviour. Then help to support them to use a more appropriate way of communicating their message or support them to explore their environment safely.