Why Do I Feel So Worried?

Why Do I Feel So Worried? is a gem of a book that helps develop emotional intelligence and the skills to address ones own feelings. The design of the book is smart and easy to navigate. Each page has a question that can provide information on what a child (or person) is worrying about. The child is given the choice to say "no, I don't feel this way," in which case they move one to the next question, or "yes, I feel this way," where they are given a short exercise to process this emotion. The techniques span a variety of fields, including psychotherapy, mindfulness, and yoga, and the book offers a broad selection of methods to help with the many worries it addresses. One can read the book all the way through to get a comprehensive understanding of the way their many worries might be affecting them, or, once a specific concern has been identified and addressed, one can skip to the end of the book and wrap up their session. Readers are prompted to identify the specific emotion they are feeling and its intensity at the beginning and the end of the process. There is also a lovely meditation script included at the end of the book to help relax the body and mind.

I as an adult found this book to be useful, and believe it will be a huge help to lots of families. The power of naming a feeling or worry and taking some small steps to address it is incredibly freeing, and the skills developed in this book will carry a child through life.

This simple flowchart-style guide to dealing with your feelings can help children (and their caretakers) identify what is causing them and how to cope with them. Designed to be read to kids or have the kid read it themselves, the choose your own adventure style, bite-sized text chunks, and simple language make the process manageable and quick. Great resource for those (working) with children through the middle grades.

This is a must have book for my daughter, and my classroom too. It explores emotions related to anxiety and gives coping strategies. Children deal with anxiety much more than many adults realize. This book helps normalize emotional health, but I feel the strategy lessons are the best part. Also, the intro by Kirkness helps children understand how adults could have had anxiety when they were children and that it’s okay. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

An absolute gem of a book. I loved the simple, direct, easy-to-use graphics directing kids to different pages depending on the emotion(s) they are experiencing. The parent tips on the bottom of each page were clear, free of insider jargon, and easily applicable. Emotional awareness is so, so important for kids, and this book is an amazing tool for kids dealing with big emotions. I'd say this book is a must for any child--teach them those healthy coping mechanisms and emotional awareness when they are young! (Even as an adult, I could learn from this book!)

This is a simple to understand and graphically appealing book to help children identify and address their anxiety. So many kids have so much anxiety these days and this book is an invaluable resource for helping kids articulate their concerns. Based on conversations with my peers, parents are struggling to help their children navigate their feelings so the parent tips provided on the bottom of many of the pages are wonderful. This is a thoughtful, comprehensive resource for kids and their parents.

Tammi Kirkness, the author of “Why do I feel so worried” has done a fabulous job on dissect all parts related to being worried. The strategies mentioned in the text to cope with all types of worrying are highly helpful and commendable. This book is definitely a must read with young kids who are exploring their feelings.

This would.be a valuable book for any school library or counselor's office in a public library's parenting section and family with children.

This is a book I wish had been around when I was a kid. I struggled with anxiety and even though I loved to talk, I think I had trouble explaining what I was worried about sometimes. I appreciate the fact that this book is kid oriented but doesn’t feel ”babyish”. It seeks to validate the child’ feelings while providing concrete steps and actions they can take to alleviate their fears. I also like the notes at the bottom of many of the pages providing more background information on the topic or actions described. For example, the term catastrophizing is explained on one page. There is a section at the back of the book with specific affirmation statements parents/adults can share and model. There are also examples of tactics such as grounding and an adorable story that can be used for practicing meditation. There are also general resource links that parents or adults can reference for additional information. All in all, I could see this book being a great tool for parents/caregivers/family members to work through with a child who is struggling with lots of feelings. I could also see it being used by counselors, psychologists and social workers when working with kids. In these uncertain times, helping kids to understand how they are feeling and how to handle these feelings is critical. The book even includes pages about reacting to local or worldwide events!

Everyone NEEDS this book- if you are a parent, a kid, a teacher, an adult with no kids, etc who has experienced worries- this book is for YOU!
The most practical and helpful book I’ve come across in a while, Tammi Kirkness has created the most reader-accessible self-help book that EVERY teacher should get a copy of for their classroom! I cannot WAIT for this book to be out so I can buy it for my family, students, and friends! Do not miss out on this one!

This is such a great book to help kid (and parents) understand and work through anxiety. As someone with big anxiety issues, I found myself making note of things I should try when I start feeling anxious. Designed for kids, but with notes for parents, the easy to follow flow-chart style is wonderful. There isn't a lot of text on each page so already it is less anxiety producing than other books on the topic. I love that the tone isn't infantilizing or condescending. It is straightforward and clear. I'll be purchasing this for our libraries for sure.

I really enjoyed reading through this book. The illustrations are appealing to children without being garish or too stimulating. The questions are easy to follow through the charts. I think this book could help many kids and families out there work on many kinds of emotional issues.

This is such a wonderful book! I love books that help little kids deal with big feelings, and this is one of the best I've found. It's an interactive flow chart that guides them through their difficult emotions with a special section and lots of side notes to parents to explain the science behind some of the techniques and help them assist their kids in navigating through these times.

I especially love that the flow chart style helps target specific symptoms of anxiety, as it can be experienced so differently by different individuals.

It's so important to start conversations about mental health early and keep it going in these modern times. This book helps achieve this in giving names to feelings and providing age-appropriate tools to help kids cope with those feelings. The information is very kid-friendly but is also able to be used and adapted for a wide range of ages so that the kids can keep the things that help them ready to help combat anxieties they encounter when they're older too.

Honestly, this book is so wonderful for helping parents raise emotionally aware kids with healthy coping mechanisms and I can't recommend it enough!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

As a social worker and therapist for children I would 100% use this book in my practice. I loved the choose your own adventure type style. It allows the children to point out which sections feel true for their emotions in the moment. It also is great because it would help the child feel like they are in control of trying different techniques to feel better instead of adults telling them what to do. Great work!

Why Do I Feel So Worried? is a book to help children with big feelings, worries or anxiety to become emotionally aware and develop healthy grounding and coping techniques starting at a young age. The Flowchart and note style of this book truly makes this book user friendly and these techniques accessible for an elementary or middle school aged child and assists their adults to understand the methods used as well. This book has been so great to utilize with my 7 year old as we continue to navigate managing his anxiety through emotional awareness.

*I was provided an electronic ARC of this book for review through @netgalley.

Why Do I feel So Worried? is a book designed to help a child (or even an adult) understand his/ her feelings and manage those feelings in a healthy manner. There are notes to parents and caregivers throughout the book as well as notes at the beginning and end of the book. The book starts with a child determining how he/ she feels using faces representing different emotions and a rating scale. The child can then describe how his/ her body is feeling and where the worry started. There is a lengthy series of yes/ no questions that can be used with the child on determining what they are actually worried about along with concrete activities the child can use to get through the big feelings. There are literally arrows that the child and caregiver can follow as they navigate the child's feelings. At the very end of the book, there is a check-in section where the child again rates how he/ she is feeling. There are also helpful tips, calming rituals, affirmations, an anytime meditation script, as well as additional resources.

I absolutely loved this book and am absolutely adding it to my classroom library. I will also be sharing this information with our school's guidance counselor, and behavior specialist. I am a special education teacher and over the years, many of my students have had difficulties with managing their worries and self-regulations. Some of these students have unfortunately displayed some extremely inappropriate behaviors as a result. This book will be a useful tool to help teach students how to manage their response to their anxiety. I really like that this could be used during a behavioral event and can help guide a child through his/ her feelings and then use the techniques to help manage those big feelings.. The students do not choose to be anxious , but this book can help them choose how to manage the anxieties.

I love this book. I will be adding it to my personal collection. Having a 5 year old with sensory disorders and going through the pandemic has caused a rift in his social emotional learning. We work with him but are always looking for new titles to add. This book allows for him to self identify and offers simple solutions or choices to help with his feelings. In this time of uncertainty many children are not learning to cope or adapt their feelings. This would be great anywhere accessible to children or families.

As a psychotherapist I was very impressed by this book that I honestly feel both children and adults would benefit from. We live in a society that tells us “negative” emotions are “bad”. This book normalizes emotions as internal messages, steps to process those emotions and, finally, self-soothe. I’d love to read more from this author and will be recommending it to other professionals, parents and caregivers in my field of profession.

This book is AMAZING! It is a wonderful resource full of questions to help kids (and their grownups) really root out what they're feeling and what may be causing it. It asks lots of questions and has flow charts to help get to the core of things that might be bothering kids. Once issues are identified, several coping suggestions are offered.

The abundance of practical advice is what makes this so valuable. So often we might figure out the "what" of our feelings, or even the "why", but are often left without tools to address the situation. This offers a robust toolkit of activities, exercises, and affirmations to address worries head-on, without judgment or undue alarm. This would be an excellent purchase for school social workers, psychologists, and resource officers. It would also be a very useful reference for all parents and caregivers to have on hand.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

Very easy for children and adults to break down anxiety management into bite sized chunks. Perfect for elementary school and middle grade kids to read aloud, practice with a trusted therapist or adult, and gain some insight into emotional management and processing. It’s colorful and fun to look at, and is never preachy or condescending. As an adult reading this I can also say I find the exercises very practical for any age and yes even for us grownups. A great intro to mindfulness as well. Loved this and highly recommend.

This is an excellent guide to helping your kid work through some worries. My kid worries - a LOT - and I will definitely be reading this with them. I can definitely see how some of the exercises could really help them.

The information is presented in a clear, easy-to-understand, and visually appealing way. It is easy to work through the entire book or just the section that is relevant to the child's current worry. There are incisive questions to ask the child and exercises (meditation, etc) to help deal with each specific type of worry.

*Thanks to NetGalley and The Experiment for providing an e-arc for review.

This workbook created to help tweens and their families navigate the treacherous waters of anxiety is incredibly well-done. The book is broken into four sections: How do I feel?; Feeling my Feelings; Figuring out where the worry started; Checking in again. The flowchart style is very user-friendly and will appeal to readers of all ages. Readers are also provided with useful tips and tricks to help them alleviate some of their worries and anxieties. I really liked that the book will help readers to identify if their anxiety is internal or beginning with an external stimulus. The reminders and affirmations will also help to provide a calmness to readers.

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was expecting information about anxiety, but this format was so much better than I was expecting. The book takes a young reader through a series of steps to define and describe their worries while suggesting helpful techniques to calm anxiety and plan for the future. I wish I had this resource growing up. Adults will also benefit from reading.

This is an incredible book to help children manage their feelings. The interactive nature of the book is very engaging, particularly the flow chart to assist with the identification of anxiety symptoms. Over the past two years, my child has been struggling with anxiety and worry. This book helped him tremendously, and is a great resources to have at home.

I loved this book! I am a special education teacher and a mom of 2 kids with anxiety. This book was so user friendly and practical. I love the way it asked thoughtful questions to get kids thinking about their problems as well as providing pathways to solutions. It is easy to read and engaging with colorful illustrations. I would highly recommend this book to all parents and teachers and will definitely be adding a copy to both my home and classroom libraries.

This book was such a good choice for me. I was able to read it with a few of my children who absolutely worry. Alot. It was easy to engage with and even my kids several years younger had no trouble understanding this book. The discussions that proceeded this book are priceless. The discussions kids and I had probably would not have been started in such a calming way had it not been for this book. I was quite surprised by how much they liked this book.

This book is a great guided way to work through why we worry, and how we can work through those feelings. It is broken down very well and easy to read.

This was a great book to really put into perspective how anxiety can affect one's life. I thought it was relatable and easy to follow, and saw myself using it with my students in the future. Mental health issues affect many children and they haven't always been talked about. This book easily allows children to cope and rationalize their feelings, while giving parents a good stepping stone towards talking to their child. I wish this was around when I was younger!