Ruby's Worry: What to Read Next

If you would benefit from more books about feelings, try Nadia Shireen’s Barbara Throws a Wobbler and Geoffrey Gets the Jitters. She uses animal characters to explore emotions that can sometimes be overwhelming, and there’s always humour in her stories. Meanwhile, Michelle Robinson and Tom Knight have a funny series about food items having strong feelings – When Cucumber Lost His Cool, for instance, and When Cookie Crumbled. The use of humour (and food) makes these very enjoyable to read together. Finally, books that explore emotions within friendships, such as Wendy Meddour and Merle Goll’s Patrick and Flippa, and Chris Naylor-Ballesteros’s Frank and Bert series, are invaluable for reading with children who might be finding friendship dynamics a bit tricky sometimes. 

Part of Ruby’s struggle is that she wants to feel like herself again. The following books explore identity in various interesting ways – using both mirrors and windows. I’m (Mostly) Happy Being Me by Anna Milbourne and Åsa Gilland shows the child reader that everyone is different, and that it’s not worthwhile focusing on what you’re not good at, or don’t like. Best of All: the Magical Mix That’s You by Smriti Halls and Chaaya Prabhat celebrates everyone’s unique family and heritage make-up, while Someone Just Like You by Helen Docherty and David Roberts celebrates the fact that no matter who you are and what you’re into, there will be someone in the world who also feels the same. Finally, Frank in Frank is a Butterfly by Alex Latimer is so joyously delighted to be a butterfly (compared to his friends, who are dissatisfied with their wing patterns) that it’s inspirational. Everyone should be more Frank! 

The Big Bright Feelings books often use colour to reflect the characters’ emotions, which can be very effective for young children. Other books that use colour in a clever way include Here Comes Frankie! by Tim Hopgood, which uses colour to depict music – the better Frankie gets at playing the trumpet, the more beautiful the images! Press Here! and other books by Hervé Tullet often use colour changes to show the results of an interactive element – to great effect. If you’ve shaken the book, for instance, the red spots might change to blue! Also playing with the concept of what a book has within its pages, and how you might read it, The Invisible Story by Jaime Gamboa and Wen Hsu Chen, translated by Daniel Hahn, is about a blank book that thinks it doesn’t contain a story. But it does – in Braille. Colour slowly seeps into the pages as a little girl reads it with her fingers. Beautiful. And finally, conversely, The Black book of Colours by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria asks the reader to imagine colours through the other senses. Fascinating and thought-provoking. 

Those are some of our ideas – but what about you? Let us know by messaging us on social media @BookTrust