Anxious is a children's story focused around anxiety. It follows a little girl who gets anxious and shows how she can work through it.
It is a great way to talk about a new emotion with children and adults. It shows what anxiety can feel like, which can be scary at first. It also shows kids how to work through their anxiety with a trusted adult.

I also love the "Note to Adults" in the back!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Anxious by Luciana de Luna is a fantastic book for any shelf. She manages to take a big, complex issue like anxiety and break it down into bite sized pieces to help young readers understand the emotion. Each page holds only a short sentence or two so readers don’t have too much information to take in at a time. Barbani’s illustrations make the information and story come alive in soft pictures that still convey the tangle of emotions that anxiety displays without overwhelming the message.

Young readers are used to feeling big emotions, and this book will help any of them give a name and some potential coping skills to their feelings of anxiety. Resources are also offered in the back of the book for caregivers if more information or help is needed.

This is a great resource for kids on feeling anxious.
Anxiety can be such a hard feeling to detect even as adults... It can feel very confusing. I think this book is needed and could be a great addition to all homes.

I also really appreciate the resources for parents in the back of the book.

An absolutely beautiful book! I will share it with my kids, and hope the gentle explanations and guidance will help them recognize their own anxiety and give them an idea of how to escape its grasp. The illustrations are gorgeous!

This book is a goof brief introduction to anxiety for children. The illustrations are wonderful. The readers guides after for readers and for parents are great (especially the parent one, which has lots of resources ) I do wish in the text of the “story” it identified the “feeling “ as anxiety. I got an arc from netgalley, but my review is unbiased.

Young children, and adults too, often struggle with the feelings brought on by anxiousness. It can often stop us from everyday life and the things we love. I struggle with this myself. This book touched very close to my heart, as well as my son’s. My son who is 4 also struggles with anxiety and how to handle it daily, sometimes several times a day. We received this as an ebook ARC and we absolutely love this book. The story is told from the child’s view and what she faces during her day. It shows the real emotions that she struggles with, even when the world around just feels like it is too much to handle. The book is so well written and easy to follow for all children to understand. The simple illustrations are perfect, they give a calm vibe and keep it simple to focus on what the story is all about. I like that the story explained how she felt, like screaming and feeling strange. It also talks about how she learns to calm and breathe and to find a balance. This story was perfect for our family and I will be adding to our home library. It was so easy for my son to relate to the story and better understand his feelings. Share this wonderful book with your family.

This is such a great book for kids who have anxiety! Young kids don't always understand those feelings, so this is a nice book to help them see that these feelings happen to other kids. I love that it gives advice on what to do. The illustrations are great as well.

This is a beautiful children’s book. I found myself enchanted by the little moth girl. I have an anxiety disorder, so books that explain and help anxiety are always welcome in my library. I also have a four year old. This is a great book to read to him because it helps to explain anxiety but also has solutions for anxiety.

It’s so sweet in the way it gives a loving path for children and parents to connect and help repair the feelings that come with anxiety.


I would read this book again and I would also happily add this book to my library for my son.

"Anxious" is a beautiful picture book that follows a small girl dealing with anxious feelings. She lyrically describes how anxiety feels to her, and gorgeous illustrations gives those feelings life on the pages. Particularly striking is the double page spread of squiggly, scribbled black illustrating her darkest times, countered by a later double page spread of large flowers blooming in full color surrounding the child and caregiver embracing once the child has calmed down through asking for help, a hug, and breath practice. The book ends with a note to child readers, a note to adults/caregivers, and further resources. Both notes provide tips for self-regulation and encouragement to seek help when needed. This book is a gem that should have a place in all libraries serving children and their caregivers.

I absolutely love everything about this book. The story is relatable, and not only to anxious readers or people who have experienced anxiety, but also all neurodivergent readers. The feeling of strangeness, or things not being as they seem, the struggle to connect and not be overwhelmed by sounds and crowds, are all more universal than they might at first appear. The illustrations are endearing and made me love the characters, and that part of myself that feels this way as well. And I know if I feel that way, young readers will have that as well, only amplified by more in common with the speaker and her story. I love the butterfly outfit, and the quirky feelings throughout. It is often difficult to find beautiful, thoughtful quiet books about difference, disability and inclusion, and this book is all of those things. Lovely. I do wish there was more neurotypes directly addressed in the back material, as I feel this story will resonate with autistic readers, but the back material seems to focus only on neurotypical approaches. This is a small ask, as the book is so delightful, and that extra sentence or two would only expand its reach and meaning for me. A worthwhile read and addition to any library.

A beautiful illustrated journey through the many feelings of anxiety and how it can make you feel and how you can deal with it healthily.
I loved it! The art has such an ethereal quality to it, it was very calming to read!

Beautiful illustrations provided an insightful look into an anxious child's world. This book will be a useful tool in starting a conversation with kids about anxiety and how they're feeling. The illustrations help reinforce the feelings of anxiety; ranging from darker illustrations in the beginning when anxiety is felt the most to more colorful illustrations as help is asked for and the anxious feeling lessens. The author also provided a note to adults and resources for caregivers at the end of the book, which are helpful additions for those looking for more information.

A short and simple picture that is a great start to discuss anxiety with children. I loved the artwork. I think this is a great addition to a collection on mental illness or tough topics.

This book is a short and sweet story of a young girl dealing with anxiety, a very isolating condition especially at a young age. This book does a great job of describing and illustrating anxiety, and the best part are the resources in the back for readers and parents.

As someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety since I was a small child [before we even really knew what anxiety was and certainly didn't talk about either, especially in children], I would have loved this book. It would have helped me put words to what I was feeling and how anxiety kept me from doing things I wanted to do and from accomplishing even minor daily tasks [my poor teachers] and the fantastic notes at the end would have helped both me AND my mom, who had no idea how to deal with, much less help, her over-sensitive, introverted, depressed, anxiety-ridden child [the notes, with simple instructions, questions and resources is a real gem in this book and parents/caregivers will really benefit from this - kudos to the author for including them].

Parents and caregivers will love the simplicity of this book; told in a way that helps the child put to words all they are feeling and teaching them that there are ways to help with you are anxious and overwhelmed. The illustrations go well with the story, showing how dark can go to light and how lovely it is when you can tamp that anxiety down and enjoy life again.

Perfect for anyone [as those who do not have anxiety will benefit from this as well as it will help teach empathy towards those who do and will show kids how they can be helpers to their friends that DO have anxiety], kids and adults alike, I highly recommend this book to everyone. We can all learn to be more empathetic and kind and those of us who have anxiety can remember there are tools that can help calm that anxiety monster.

Thank you to NetGalley, Luciana DeLuca, Natalí Barbani - Illustrator, and Annick Press Ltd for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The illustrations of this book was honestly my favorite part. The tips at the back of the book seem helpful to me but the book itself (the part for the kids) seemed very short and seemed to fall flat for me. I understand it needs to be educational and I understand people need to ask for help, children included, but I feel more like I would take the tips from the back of the book versus give this book to my child and expect them to read it.

What a simple, sweet message perfect for kids with anxiety. My daughter loved the illustrations! I appreciated the tips at the end for kids and parents as well!

As an educator, I'm always on the lookout for picture books that tackle real emotions in a relatable way for young children. "Anxious" by Luciana De Luca, with its stunning illustrations by Natalí Barbani, has soared to the top of my list. This story dives into the often-confusing world of anxiety for a young child, and it does so with a beautiful blend of simplicity and empathy. The child wants to join in the fun with her friends, but anxiety throws up roadblocks which can happen to anyone, but can be very confusing to a child who does not understand what is causing it. This was a beautiful book and the additions of the Note to Reader and Note to Adults along with the resource page was a thoughtful addition and can be a jumping off point in getting the conversation started when helping a child understand big emotions. I look forward to adding this to my classroom.

As a mama of a kiddo with anxiety that struggles herself, I very much appreciate this book.

My kiddo is a bit older now, but Anxious would have been the perfect tool for us to connect with. I love the illustrations, and helping kids figure out that the feelings that they are having through pictures that they can connect with is wonderful. The notes at the end are very helpful as well. I wish more resources like this existed or were more easily accessible a few years ago. I will definitely be sharing this book with my teacher friends!

Thank you Luciana De Luca, NetGalley, and Annick Press for the eARC.

This is a good way to explain anxiety to children— the drawings perfectly illustrated how anxiety feels with the swirling colors and use of light.