This was a great book, teaching kids how to help take control of their own anxious thoughts and steady themselves back on the ground. It goes through how to take deep breaths, and the five senses that you should look for when you're losing control of your worrisome thoughts. It might be a little too much for young kids to grasp, but I think it would be perfect for school age kids who are experiencing those same feelings each day. It's even a great reminder for us parents

I really enjoyed reading Molly and the Runaway Trolley. It’s about a young girl struggling with anxiety. It describes what anxiety might feel like and describes some strategies that might help children manage their anxiety. The language and the illustrations are fantastic and age appropriate for elementary age children. It would be a great book for parents and teachers to read aloud and discuss.

Thank you so much to boys town press and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Molly is struggling with her overwhelming anxiety and it’s getting in the way of everything causing her trolly in her mind to go haywire as she cannot control it at all. Until one day she learns new skills on how to calm it down.

This was sweet, I really loved seeing a good representation for anxiety and exactly what it can look like, how the mind doesn’t stop and how it over does everything until you cannot focus anymore. It was a great depiction. I thought it was sweet that she found herself a way to cope, a way to slow herself down and see around her and it gave the teacher a great way to help her too.

This is a really sweet book with cute illustrations throughout, it is a good read and it showcases anxiety well, it would help a lot of children that may not know what is wrong or how to understand it all, this could help them but also offer guidance. A great book for schools and for parents to read with children to help everyone understand anxiety and what to do to help and guide.

As someone who struggles with anxiety, "Molly and the Runaway Trolly" really hit home. This book beautifully captures the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with anxiety and they are things that I am all too familiar with. This book helped start a conversation with my 7 year old about anxiety. We sat down and read the book together, and I could see her relating to Molly and how she felt at times. The book helped to be a launching point for us to explore anxiety in a way that was relatable for her. This helped us have a fantastic conversation about both of our worries and ways to help us calm down after periods of stress. It is a conversation that I had been longing to have with her but never knew how to start. I am very grateful to Ashley Bartley for creating this amazing resource. It offers excellent tips on how to manage anxiety and even has an additional section for parents on helping your child cope with anxiety.

This book was perfect for an elementary age student who is dealing with anxiety. It helps give visual to the anxiety (the trolley) and gives simple to remember tips (the same ones I’ve learned in therapy as an adult) to get off the trolley. My kids are too young for it (2 and 4) but I will remember this one for when they’re older!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the eARC! This is a great book about dealing with anxiety. The story shows how anxiety affects the main character, and what anxiety looks and feels like. It talks about looking for 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things that you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste to help stay grounded. This book shows that it is ok to have anxiety, and gives ways on how to cope / work with your anxiety. I wish this book was around when I was younger!

As someone who lives with chronic anxiety this book was amazing. Definitely one I want my daughter to have to understand my anxiety and if some day she has her own anxiety. Well done!

Thank you @netgalley for the eARC!

This was a nice, brief story on how anxiety might feel to a child. The metaphor was nicely explored, although I feel the language in the book skews American as - I assume - this is the intended audience for the book.

What I really liked about the book was that the coping mechanisms for dealing with anxiety are explored clearly and in a way that children can go on to feel empowered in adopting these simple strategies themselves. The book also acknowledges the importance of sharing feelings and asking for help when feeling get too big, which I think is vital and this message dovetails well with the PSHE curriculum that we currently teach here in UK primaries.

It would have been nice to see more anxieties explored than the examples provided (before a test, being late for school), but those that were introduced were well-fleshed out. As a formerly anxious child (and now anxious adult!), it was good to see catastrophising put onto the page in a recognisable way. The illustrations worked well with the narrative, although they weren’t particularly eye-catching or bold. The page for adults at the back was well done. Strange as it sounds, I really liked the typeface, which was bold and I think would appeal to kids.

If the language were less US-centric (tardy, trolley), I might have purchased a copy for my KS1 classroom. To be honest, I still might as it’s a nicely done exploration of anxiety for kids, nonetheless.

A great book to teach your children about anxiety!!

This book started brilliantly! The illustrations are big, bright, and colourful - everything you would want in a kid's book! However, I did notice towards the middle of the book, the text started to get longer and longer. My niece and nephew get bored when the text goes on for more than 4 or so sentences in the same chunk, so I'm not sure how that would go down.

However, I will say this story was amusing in a way and really a good way to teach anxiety. The typography was also great!

This is an excellent book. Molly's story and illustrations are both stunning. Many children who read it will benefit from Molly in overcoming their anxieties. as well as the importance of parents and circumstances in assisting.

This book might be good for a family to read together if there is a child that is struggling with controlling their anxiety and emotions. It is too much for just a child to read alone. This story would be a great starting point for discussing how to deal with anxiety and stress. It teaches wonderful coping mechanisms and the colorful illustrations are sure to capture a child's attention. I would recommend this book to parents of school age children. Thank you Net Galley, Ashley Bartley and Boys Town Press Publishing for the ARC.

I loved this book I thought it was a really good way of explaining anxiety and worries for kids.
This definitely one I will be using a lot with my children.

This was a nice book to read, exploring and validating children’s anxieties. I liked that this book emphasizes that Molly couldn’t control her anxiety, or when it happened to her

I’ve got a kiddo who has anxiety so I’m always on the hunt for a succinct book to add more tools to our toolbox to help manage these feelings. Molly and the Runaway Trolley is about a girl named Molly who likens her feelings of anxiety to being a passenger on an out of control trolley speeding down the road. The author and illustrators did an excellent job of painting this picture of anxiety but I think they spent too much time on the anxiety portion. 16 pages were dedicated to Molly’s extreme anxiety with 12 pages dedicated to the solution. Frankly, we were getting more anxious reading about her anxiety. I think fewer pages could have still have effective yet not brought the reader into her anxiety.

As for the solution, we were totally on board (see what I did there?). A friendly conductor shows Molly how to operate the trolley and take control, specifically using a bracelet with 5 beads to help her remember that when she’s feeling anxious she should look around her and identify 5 things she can see, 4 things she can touch, 3 things she can hear, 2 things she can smell and 1 thing she can taste. The conductor says that this will help her gain control so she can step back and identify what she needs and who she can ask for help. I love that this solution is easy to comprehend yet effective. The book also includes additional tips and free downloads to further practice and understand this coping mechanism.

Thank you to NetGalley and BoysTown Press for the advance electronic copy. All opinions are my own.

Molly and the Runaway Trolley is a story about a little girl named Molly, who suffers from anxiety- or as she calls it, her “runaway trolley.”

This is a cute storybook that does a nice job through the narrative of teaching children some healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with stress and anxiety. I’m sure it will be helpful to many who read it- as it would have been for me when I was little.

I loved this ! This is a great teaching aid for helping children to take steps to control anxiety and worry. The story was brilliantly written and the illustrations were very eye catching and my group I read this book with really enjoyed it.

Molly and the Runaway Trolley is a colorful illustrated book to help kids learn how to manage their stress and anxiety. It's visually entertaining and informative. Very useful with many tips for kids to implement healthy coping mechanisms from an early age.

This was a very good book to show a way for children to understand their anxiety. It had very cute illustrations, and was also educational as it contained easy grounding techniques for kids to utilize.