This book is perfect for kids struggling with anxiety and panic attacks.
The whole story is about finding your center and calming yourself in those situations. I love the art and the writing style. I would recommend to librarians, parents, and young readers.
Thank you Netgalley for this opportunity to review this wonderful children's book!

This is a great book for students who struggle with anxiety, especially a fear of the unknown. It would be a great addition to a counselors repertoire, and could have some use in my classroom.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A helpful tool for kids who are anxious. The pictures were colorful and the text flowed well. Panic attacks are scary and it's helpful when someone can relate. It's nice for kids to know they aren't alone, even if it is just a fictional character.

This is fantastic book in that it explains to children visualy what is happening to them when they feel anxious and then, importantly, how they can take action to reduce that anxiety. the steps are given very clearly and there is bonus content for parents and caregivers to support the children reading the book. the illustrations are quite quaint and old fashioned.

"Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree" was a perfect book for my elementary classroom. I loved that it not only showed the "What If's" that run through a child's mind, it also showed ways to to calm down. The illustrations are beautiful as well. Overall, this book would be a great addition to any child's life to help support the emotions those little bodies may feel.

Thank you #netgalley for giving me a copy of #MindfulBeaAndTheWorryTree to review. This was a cute story about a girl with a worry. It was a little intense for my daughter (5), but I thought it was a good read. I liked that the story gave ways to get through worries. I think this is a good book for elementary aged children.

This was an absolute gem of a book by the author, Gail Silver!

I loved the classical-type illustrations by Franziska Hollbacher which were fun and colourful. I also liked the use of rhythm in the story and I thought this was a lovely touch by the author. The descriptions of what it feels like to worry too much were accurately portrayed (I am a worrier myself) and I loved the detailed coping mechanisms.

This is one of my favourite children's books I've read so far this year. Rating: 5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Magination Press for the complimentary ARC. This is my honest and totally voluntary opinion.

Children's anxiety is often hard to notice. Often the difference between having anxiety, being a brat, being a wuss or just being ridiculous is difficult to see in most kids. I myself was a child that was accused of being 'difficult' or 'anti-social' because all I wanted to do was stay in my room and read. This wasn't that I didn't want to do things; it was more that I was often very afraid. Bea experiences this exact scenario on the day of her birthday. She is so overcome with worry about all the things that might go wrong that she asks her mother to cancel the whole event and tell all her friends to leave.
Luckily Bea remembers her breathing exercises, meets a cute bird and blows up some balloons. This all helps her calm down and get excited to see her friends at her birthday party. What's brilliant about Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree is not just the illustrations (where vines in the pictures show the branches of Bea's anxiety) but also the typesetting. It's not so much the words used as it is the way they are written on the page. In all caps, in bold, in larger type size, etc. All of these elements that emphasize the way Bea feels will be easily transferred to any child, even if they cannot read. I imagine how I would have felt as a child not only seeing how I felt in the words read to me but also in the treatment of the words seen on the page. It takes good page layout and a decent designer to really understand the way placement and treatment can affect how we think. Whether it was Gail Silver or someone else that is one of the major highlights of how Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree conveys it's message.
Overall, even for a child that isn't anxious all the time, I think Silver has an important ] message for children (and adults). A story that tells us it's okay to be anxious, afraid or nervous; but that it's worth it to try and get past that so you can have a great party!

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Bea’s birthday party is about to start when her anxiety creeps in. She starts to worry about all the things that could go wrong and becomes so upset by it that she wants to cancel the party. After going out to the backyard to avoid answering the door, she starts to take deep, calming breaths and tries to focus on controlling her thinking. Eventually she calms down and is able to enjoy her party and her friends.

This book is a wonderful way to explain to children what anxiety can feel like. As an adult, it is a confusing feeling, so for a child who struggles with identifying and processing feelings overall, it can be especially so. In addition to showing the reader how anxiety can feel, how it can affect you, how it can pop up even at good times, it provides a simple method for finding calm: taking deep, slow breaths in and out, acknowledging the anxiety, and attempting to refocus your thoughts. This is the technique I’ve seen most commonly referred to and is simple enough for a child to do on their own. Good stuff.

Anxiety is a wily beast that can wreak havoc on your life and is especially disturbing for small children. This cute book provides concrete examples and tools for parent and child to help tame anxiety when it rears its ugly head.

The Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree by Gail Silver is about a girl called Bea. Her birthday party is coming up and she is worried about many things. Will her friends come to the party? What if they don’t like the games? Will the cake be enough?⁣

Her worry sprouts and grows like the branches of the willow tree in Bea’s home. Will Bea confront her worries or will the branches of the willow tree surround her and choke her? ⁣

The illustrations by Franziska Hollbacher are beautiful with a vibrant green background. This book teaches little ones how to confront their worries and be more mindful of their thoughts.⁣

Thank you to Netgalley, The American Psychological Association and Magination Press for the ARC. ⁣

This book is meant to help children with anxiety and worry overcome their fears and calm themselves down. However, this book fails on many levels. The rhyming meter falters on nearly every page, and the sentences are over long for the audience. The illustrations showing a plant growing out of control are effective, but the use of several different types of fonts makes the page cluttered and frantic. Perhaps that is supposed to be mirroring the feeling of a panic attack, but it might cause visual anxiety as well. The story tells readers what to do instead of showing them. This book might have a place in a therapists office, but not in a general collection.

As a mother of a child who has been diagnosed with anxiety, I found that this book was easy to relate. It is heartbreaking to see how much stress a little person can go through because their brain goes into over drive. This definitely has an accurate depiction of what an anxious child is like.
I like that it has some techniques that could help a child learn to cope with their anxiety as it is one of the toughest lessons to teach a young one.

Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree centers on Bea and how she deals with her anxiety. There are cute, engaging illustrations of the Bea demonstrating deep breathing and self-talk. This book would assist my students dealing with worry. Thanks American Psychological Association and NetGalley for the ARC of this title.

This book is about Bea, a girl that's struggling with worried, anxious thoughts and anxiety. Bea is worried about getting through her birthday party. Bea's mom talks to Bea and gives reassurance. Bea is not sure she can face her friends, the party, and all that goes with it. This book is relatable for kids who deal with the same thoughts. In the book, Bea shows her self doubt, but begins to see that she can do it. In the book Bea also goes through breathing exercises, which are a great skill for kids dealing with anxiety, to know. I read this book to a group of students at school that deal with anxious thoughts. I heard things like "I've thought that before," "she's like me" and "you can do it Bea." The illustrations in this book were colorful, bright, and fun. I enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to other professionals working with kids.

Bea is having a birthday party, but the worry tree has started to grow and threatens to keep her from the fun. She struggles to get a grip on her fears, but some deep breathing in blowing up balloons seems to help.

I’m assuming that like the other books from the American Psychological Association this will have notes to parents and caregivers in the back with further tips and advice for how to help a child with anxiety. (The ARC I received was blank in the last few pages where that would be.) I like the analogy of worries with a plant that is threatening to entrap and tangle a little girl. The book also will help kids become aware of the thoughts they are entertaining and provide a management tip in some deep breathing. Parts of the book were in rhyme and other parts weren’t really and that kind of threw off the rhythm a little bit for me. The art style is one that will appeal to kids. Recommended to families with little worriers and elementary schools. There aren’t many books at all that tackle anxiety for young kids, so this fills a need.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an electronic ARC from Magination Press through NetGalley.
Helping children cope with anxiety.
I like the premise and I like the information on relaxing your breathing and focusing on simply breathing in and breathing out. I also like the hint that the mother may also suffer from Anxiety given near the end.
The illustrations bring what's happening inside to life. The vines cling and wrap and grow stronger as Bea gets more and more caught up in her concerns and fears.
However, the rhyme scheme feels forced and does not read smoothly. It's struggle to read this aloud without sounding disjointed. It's hard to stay in the rhythm when reading silently as well. This distracts from the author's point.
I like the first step provided but would have appreciated some information for adults (may be coming in the final version) and an acknowledgement that sometimes focusing on breathing may work and sometimes it may not.
It's still a terrific resource for families and elementary level libraries so children can identify with someone going through the same thing they are.

We absolutely loved this book and as the mother of an anxious child it was so good to see this depicted in a children's book so we could open the conversation up on a more personal level. The focus on finding a safe space, slowing down, and letting go of stress was perfect. Lovely book!

**This review will be published on 30 April (UK publication day) links can be updates**

The Story:
Bea loves to be outside, but on her birthday, she is lying scared in her bed. Bea is feeling anxious about the party and has a million what-ifs and questions running through her mind. Her mum tries to reassure her but ultimately Bea learns to control her anxious thoughts by concentrating on her breathing. Then she realises she’s forgotten the balloons for her party. Can she overcome her worries and have a great party?

Favourite Spread:
I love the spreads which include multiple speech bubbles for Bea’s inner monologue that runs in parallel to the conversation she is having with her mum. Gail really has captured the thoughts of a person struggling with anxiety.

The speech bubbles in particular offer an insight into what anxiety feels like making this a great story to read with both children who maybe don’t know how it feels to be anxious as well as for a child that gets anxious but is struggling to explain their emotions to others. Gail has also cleverly incorporated breathing techniques within the story to help alleviate a panic attack.

The Verdict:
Overall this is a brilliant rhythmic story for exploring what it feels like to be anxious and how to deal with anxiety and panic. My only slight concern was that the willow tree (Bea’s safe place) looks almost identical to the “Worry tree” and I felt this made the message slightly confused. Although using a tree as a metaphor was a nice idea, it did come across a little scary how the tree had “gnarled roots”. However, once past this early spread and into the story of the anxiety Bea was feeling, both the words and illustrations were fantastic.

I am very grateful to the publisher for providing me with an advanced digital copy via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful book for any child suffering from anxiety. Bea is having a party and is starting to worry about all that could go wrong. Before her party is about to begin she starts using some relaxing exercises and calming techniques. This book is great for children like my son who suffer from anxiety and obsessive behaviors. Tips for how to change your thoughts and relax are so useful for children with anxiety.
Thank you to NetGalley and American Psychological Association for the chance to review this book.

While I liked the intent of the book, how it was executed did not excite me. I suppose there are parents that can use this story to help talk through anxiety, but I know with my own daughter who experiences anxiety, she'd find this story out of touch with her situation. Her struggles aren't as simply solved as breathing in and out.