An Unexpected Thing

Fred is afraid of lots of things: menacing shadows, things that may or may not lurk under the bed, and especially unexpected things. So, when a black disc appears in the sky, Fred is instantly afraid of it.

Coco, on the other hand, thinks that the black disc is a wonderful development. With Coco’s help, Fred builds up the courage to come and stand underneath it and look up with her; together, they start to think about all the things the circle could be. A balloon? A bubble? A comet? A moon? Really, the circle could be anything – it’s just a matter of your point of view.

Ashling Lindsay’s perceptive, sensitive story is all about the different ways we perceive things and how this affects how we feel about them. Fred is an anxious child and prone to thinking the worst; Coco is an optimist who sees opportunities in the unexpected rather than threats, and this colours how they see the disc.

This would be a great book to share with children who might be undergoing a transition of some kind – moving house or area, starting school or anything else that might be causing anxiety. The unknown and unexpected can be very scary, especially for little ones, so it’s great to have a beautiful book like this to refer to, reminding us that most things are what we make them.