Wilma Jean the Worry Machine, written by Julia Cook and Anita DuFalla, is an awesome book to read to students. Wilma Jean worries about everything concerning school, whether it’s getting called to work a math problem on the board to not having anyone to play with during recess. The teacher does an activity which allows the children to write worries they can and cannot control. By doing this activity, this helps Wilma Jean control her worries. It gives parents and teachers insight on what students worry about on a daily basis. Reading this book to the class will help them accept things that they can’t change! I can do an activity similar to what the teacher in the story did, have the students write out the worries that the can and cannot control.

5 stars

Lexile AD630L

Genre:  Inspiration / Horror / Humor / Monsters

Year Published: 2005

Year Read:  2017

Publisher:  Tanglewood Publishing Inc

Source: eARC (NetGalley)

I would like to thank NetGalley and Tanglewood for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Now, I have read many children’s books that is usually either a straight up horror story or a straight up morality tale. But, I had never come across a children’s book that had both horror and life lessons for children all combined into one story until I had requested another children’s book from NetGalley called “Is a Worry Worrying You?” “Is a Worry Worrying You?” is a children’s book written by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz along with illustrations by Marie Letourneau and it is definitely one of the most creative and haunting children’s books I had ever read!

This book is basically about helping children deal with being worried about certain situations by showing their worries in the form of a monster that is constantly hounding the characters in the book. The book would put the characters in certain situations such as worrying about a hundred elephants coming for tea and you realize that you ran out of tea for the elephants to drink. So, the solution to the problem would be to offer the elephants lemonade instead, helping you not to worry so much during that situation and finding a reasonable solution to your problem.

Wow! I cannot believe that I just got around to reading this book (it was published in 2005, and I just discovered it on NetGalley)! Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz both did a fantastic job at writing this book as I loved the idea about the concept of worry being portrayed as a scary monster that invades the characters’ homes every time the character in the story is dealing with a problem that causes them to worry! I also loved the fact that the story helps give out advice to young children about how to deal with worrisome situations such as finding a solution to take when dealing with such a situation. Probably my most favorite problem-solving situation that was shown in this book was the one where you have a group of elephants in your home who all want to have some tea and you do not have any tea left to give them. Instead, you decided to give the elephants some lemonade in place of the tea to solve the problem! Marie Letourneau’s artwork is surprisingly creepy in this book, which is much different from her work in “Argyle Fox.” I loved the fact that Marie Letourneau’s artwork is highly reminiscent of the character designs from the Tim Burton films with the characters having large rounded eyes with dark shadings underneath the eyes and also having tall and lanky bodies that make them look unnatural. I also loved the image of the worry monster itself as it is drawn as a blue monster with a mischievous evil grin on its face and it was quite entertaining seeing the monster pop up on each page whenever someone faces a situation that worries them.



Parents should know that the illustrations in this book might be a bit too creepy for some small children to handle, especially the images of the worry monster as it looks pretty threatening in the pages it appears in; especially whenever it is stalking the characters in the book. Parents might want to read this book first to see if their children can handle such creepy images.

Overall, “Is a Worry Worrying You?” is a truly fantastic and unique children’s book that would greatly help children overcome their worries in life and find reasonable solutions in conquering their worries! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the imagery might scare some small children.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

This book, first published in 2005, is an excellent starting point for discussing the issue of worry with young children. Aimed at ages 4 to 6+, many children may have worries that bother them, but that they can't quite identify. As with many childhood skills, the earlier they learn to identify and control worries, the better they are going to be able to cope as they get older.

In the book's illustrations, Worry is represented by a large monster who hovers wherever there is an opportunity for worrying. Some of the scenarios are possible and some are not. For example, one hundred elephants call for tea and you have no tea bags. Don't worry, offer them lemonade instead!

The author provides symptoms of worry to help a child identify that they are actually worried, such as feeling tired, suffering stomachache or nausea.
She helps a child to believe that there may be a solution and not to panic, and advises that a worry will stay as long as you let it.
Most of the time something you worry about never happens, but worries can get even bigger, the more you worry.
Then she suggests how a child can help themselves: think or do something else, put it to the back of your mind or share it with a friend, rationalise it.

While I think this type of book serves a very useful purpose, I'm a bit baffled by the examples of worries that it gives and why it mixes totally impossible scenarios with realistic ones. There's also an example of worrying about the first day at school, and the suggested solution is to take a gift for the teacher, I'm not sure that would still be considered PC.

Most importantly, this is a book to be shared with an adult and discussed, worries brought out into the open and solved. If it helps even just a few children then it will have been well worthwhile.
Highly recommended for parents and primary schools.