The Blurb On The Back:

Discover more about you with the Mr Men and Little Miss

A new series to encourage children to understand more about their own emotions and how to manage them with the help of the Mr Men and Little Miss.

A book about feeling anxious.

MR MEN LITTLE MISS – WORRIES was released in the United Kingdom on 4th August 2022.  Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

You can order MR MEN LITTLE MISS – WORRIES by Roger Hargreaves and Elizabeth Kilbey from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

The Review (Cut For Spoilers):

Mr Worry and Little Miss Shy have been invited to Little Miss Sunshine’s house and they are both feeling very worried and anxious about it.  Mr Worry (who worries about everything) is concerned about missing the bus or getting lost on his way to see Little Miss Sunshine while Little Miss Shy is very concerned about saying the wrong thing or not knowing what to say and blushing like a beetroot.

Fortunately, Little Miss Sunshine cares about her friends and knows how worried they can both get so she hatches a plan with Mr Calm who gives them some tips on how to manage their worries while Little Miss Sunshine shares her own tips with them to help get on top of their anxieties.

Roger Hargreaves and Elizabeth Kilbey’s picture book (part of the DISCOVER MORE ABOUT YOU SERIES) is a thoughtful guide for young readers about what to do if you feel worried or anxious and although it doesn’t have a lot of the trade mark MR MEN AND LITTLE MISS silly humour, it’s very reassuring and shows a lot of sympathy to the type of concerns that young readers have.  As such, it’s definitely worth your time.  

Having grown up reading the MR MEN books as a youngster, I have to admit that I don’t remember reading about Mr Worry when I was little.  This was probably a mistake as I was quite an anxious child (and am now a fairly anxious adult) so could have probably benefitted from reading about his adventures.  Similarly, I was a very shy and reserved child but Little Miss Shy wasn’t around when I was little, which is a shame because I definitely could have done with reading about her.

This book cleverly puts Mr Worry and Little Miss Shy together in a way that demonstrates the types of fears and anxieties that they each deal with (issues that I think will resonate well with the target audience) and then has Mr Calm and Little Miss Sunshine gives them some tools to help deal with them.  Mr Calm is a character who came along after I was out of childhood so I wasn’t familiar with him at all but I do love his groovy sandals, which are fabulous and I enjoyed the way he listens to each of his friends and makes sensible suggestions, e.g. deep breathing and also tell them that even he has worries from time to time.  Equally sensible are Little Miss Sunshine’s suggestions like writing worries down and putting together a box of things that make you happy.  It’s all done in a sympathetic way that isn’t patronising and I honestly can’t stress enough how much I liked the fact that both Mr Worry and Little Miss Sunshine are taken seriously and not dismissed by their friends and also how they become closer friends themselves by talking about what makes them anxious.

My only real criticism of the book is that there isn’t a lot of humour here – it’s much more practical in terms of discussing the book’s themes and topics.  That’s not a bad thing at all – and certainly I see the benefit of using such much-loved characters to help youngsters – but if you’re an adult reading this with your young reader then you may be a tad disappointed not to have some of the silliness that these books do so well.

All in all though, I think this is a really good book to give to young readers who have feelings of anxiety from time to time as it will help them understand that it’s perfectly normal and not something to be afraid or ashamed of while also giving them some tools to deal with the same.  As such, I definitely think that this is worth a purchase.