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All children feel anxious at one time or another, just like adults. There can be many reasons for a child to feel anxious, ranging from underlying neurodivergence to particular events happening in their lives that are worrying them. Books are always an amazing way to communicate with children and help them to understand things in life, including their own emotions. I thought I’d share some of the books we’ve read, and a few other lovely ones I’ve found. So here are 10 amazing children’s books for anxiety 🙂
1. Ruby’s Worry
Age: 5+
This is one of my favourite children’s books for anxiety. It tells the story of Ruby, a little girl who has a worry that gets bigger and bigger every day. I think it’s excellent in the way it visually shows the worry as a burden that Ruby has to carry. And it keeps on growing and growing until Ruby shares it with someone else. It’s a great story for encouraging children to talk about their anxieties. You can read a full review of Ruby’s Worry here.
2. The Huge Bag Of Worries
Age: 2+
The Huge Bag Of Worries is a lovely picture book that encourages children to open up about their fears and anxieties. Wherever Jenny goes, her worries follow her – in a big blue bag. They are with her all the time – at school, at home, when she is watching TV and even in the bathroom! Jenny decides they have to go, but who will help her get rid of them? It’s funny and reassuring and a great way to spark conversations with children about managing their feelings.
3. The Very Hungry Worry Monsters
Age: 4-8
The Very Hungry Worry Monsters is a fun and engaging picture book with friendly illustrations, to help children identify their anxieties. It’s simple to read and is a great resource for teachers and parents to use with children.
4. The Lion Inside
Age: 3-5
The twigs have been fans of this lovely book for a long time. It’s not exactly about anxiety directly, but is about putting your worries to one side and having confidence in yourself. The Lion Inside is about a tiny mouse who sets out on a journey to find his roar. He discovers that even the biggest, bossiest people are scared sometimes. And that even the smallest creatures can have the heart of a lion!
5. Find Your Calm
Age: 4+
Find Your Calm is a really accessible book which teaches children simple grounding activities and mindfulness coping tools for when they feel anxious. Children can follow along and learn as the young narrator practices strategies that keep the anxiety from taking over.
6. The Worry Monster’s Machine
Age: 5+
The Worry Monster’s Machine is a whimsical rhyming story to help children develop tools to overcome their worries. Elsie and Tom go on an adventure to meet the Worry Monster and use his fantastical machine. What will fall out of the slot? Both children learn that worries are only as scary as we allow them to be.
7. The Worrysaurus
Age: 1-5
This is another fantastic book for younger readers by Rachel Bright, author of The Lion Inside. It tells the story of Worrysaurus, who has planned a lovely picnic but finds his worries start to get in the way. Can he chase his fears away and have fun?
8. Outsmarting Worry
Age: 9-13
Outsmarting Worry is a book for teaching older kids and the adults who care about them specific skills to help them face and overcome worries. Written in language that’s accessible for children, and with cool black and white illustrations, this is a fab book for improving kids’ happiness.
9. Usborne Unworry books
Age: Various
The Unworry range from Usborne features a variety of books, mostly aimed at slightly older children. They are great for helping children to unwind and deal with anxiety.
The Unworry Book is aimed at children aged 9+. It’s a whole toolkit of things to calm children down, where they can write their worries and complete lots of mindfulness activities. There is also an Unworry Doodle Book and an Unhurry Book full of relaxing activities for busy brains.
We have the Unworry and Unhurry Magic Painting books, as these are aimed for children who are aged 5+. Magic painting is always a winner for us anyway as it’s such an easy and mess-free activity! The illustrations in these ones are lovely though, and really helpful for getting the twiglets to chill out for a while.
10. Your Mood Journal
Age: 7+
There are various mood journals out there for children, but I really love this one written and designed by Fearne Cotton. It’s aimed at kids of about 7 and over, but I’ve still found it really great to use with C (she’s 5 1/2 and a fairly confident writer). The Positive Doodle Diary is another lovely one – read our review here.
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If you’re a member of Twinkl, you can also check out their fab resource called ‘The Worry Box Activity Pack’ for lots of excellent ideas on how to support children with anxiety.
I hope this list of amazing children’s books for anxiety has given you some good ideas. Let me know if there are others you love! 🙂
Looking for more ideas to help anxious children? Check out this post on how to make a worry box 🙂 And for books to inspire children to get out in nature, check out this post 🙂
If you’re after ways of supporting teenagers with their mental health, have a listen to the Teenage Kicks podcast by Actually Mummy. Or check out these books for building confidence in teens.
Thanks for reading! Til next time,
Hannah xx
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45 Comments
It’s so wonderful that there is such a range of books to support children’s feelings. We have the Unworry Doodle book and the Unworry Magic Painting and love them! #KCACOLS
Popping back from #MischiefAndMayhem xxx
Yay 🙂 xx
Ahh the Doodle one looks lovely 🙂 It is so fab that there are so many 🙂 xx
Books that help children to understand and deal with their emotions and feelings are so important. We have Ruby’s Worry already but I’ll definitely look into getting some of the others as they sound fab! #KCACOLS
Yes definitely, we love Ruby’s Worry – such a lovely book 🙂
We have the bag of worries one. It’s great to normalise it all and give them the language to manage it #KCACOLS
Definitely, so important 🙂 xx
We absolutely love The Worrysaurus and The lion inside! 2 absolutely beautiful books
Aw definitely, they’re so lovely 🙂
Wow, you really did your research. Did you have a favourite? I’m personally a fan of artist Jim Field. cheers #KCACOLS
We’ve always loved The Lion Inside, even from when the twigs were teeny 🙂 So many lovely books 😀
Lovely ideas, I hadnt heard of a lot of these. And anything we can do to help little anxious ones is great right now #KCACOLS
Definitely, kids have had it pretty tough lately 🙁 xx
These sound like some delightful choices. I am glad that there is so much material out there for you – and others! #MMBC
Yes it’s so useful! Books are so fabulous 🙂 x
They all look like cute books but I’d really like to read the Worry Monster – cute! #MMBC
So cute isn’t it 🙂 Thanks xx
Sorry to hear that you have an anxious child. As I read this post I thought about ‘Thank Goodness For Bob’ by Matthew Morgan and Gabriel Alborozo which is a fantastic story for helping children to understand that worrying is normal. I have a review of the book on Story Snug if you are interested.
#MMBC
Ooh thank you, I will check it out 🙂 xx
I love the sound of these books. It’s so important to teach our children how to manage their worries. I’m tempted to add a couple of these to our library at home. #MMBC
Yes definitely important 🙂 Books are such a great way in to these conversations aren’t they 🙂
They are. We have similar ones that we’ve used to help Sophie when it comes to grief. Popping back from #KidsandKreativity
Aww that must be so tricky to navigate, books are helpful for so many things aren’t they xx
Thanks for bringing some books that I was not aware of to my attention #kidsandkreativity@_karendennis
Teehee no problem 🙂 x
This book list has blown me away, I really like the sound of ‘find your calm’ and ‘your mood journal’. My son has suffered with anxiety for over a year now and i’m sure the journal will help him. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS
Aww bless him, hope he’s doing ok. Glad you like the books 🙂
I didn’t realise there were so many books to help kids with anxiety, I’d only heard about Ruby’s Worry so it’s nice to discover some more to add to our collection. I love that some of them teach mindfulness skills, something that’s been very helpful for me. Introducing it to children is a great idea!
Katrina x
#MischiefandMemories
Yep totally agree! 🙂 xx
Awww what a lovely collection of books. We’ve not seen all of these, but Ruby’s worry and Lion inside are favourites for us 🙂 Thank you for joining us for #MischiefAndMemories xx
Aw thanks, glad it was useful – we love those two too 🙂
Popped back from #MischiefandMemories xx
🙂 🙂 xx
I haven’t read any of these but I’m sure there will be some grateful parents reading this post. Lockdown has been so hard on our kids and the return to school could easily increase anxiety further. Thanks for linking up with #MischiefAndMemories
Ahh thank you, yes that’s very true – going back will certainly be tough on some kiddies 🙁 Hope you’re all doing ok x
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These all look lovely – I love the look & sound of the worry monster one #mischiefandmemories
Aw yes that one does look lovely 🙂 xx
Also popping by from #KCACOLS
Katrina x
I really love how you’ve included books for all age ranges here. My children are 7 and 9, and I think they would still love some of the story books but also the books aimed at older children look like they would be really helpful for them both. x #KCACOLS
Ah that’s great, glad it was useful x
These are great. My daughter has suffered with anxiety in the past, and books have definetely helped her. Thanks for linking up with #KidsandKreativity, hope to see you back next time.
Aww bless her, great that books have helped xx
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