Warning: getting a book about scary things could be scary! Unless you're about to do something scary anyway - like start school, leave school, start a job, lose a job, get married, turn 15, turn 50 or turn over a new leaf!
When cartoonist Jules Feiffer was little, he thought parents were scary. Florence Parry Heide's main fear was that she'd never learn how to be a real life grownup. (She never did, she says.) So, years later, these two star creators of children's books have teamed up to confront the things that go bump in the night (or day) in the splendid picture book Some Things Are Scary. This litany of frightfully familiar scenarios, brilliantly illustrated with Feiffer's scritchy, expressive cartoons, ranges from stepping on something squishy when you're in your bare feet to getting a shot to discovering that your hamster cage is empty. The encompassing fleshy arms of the woman in the depiction of "getting hugged by someone you don't like is scary" are positively smothering to behold. The rapidly moving arms (all seven of them) of the boy in "telling a lie is scary" image perfectly evokes the scittery discomfort of fibbing. Feiffer's distorted perspectives on the things that "loom large" capture a range of human emotion with his usual deftness. Kids will commiserate with the saucer-eyed boy as he skates out of control, is afraid he won't be picked for either team, or gets stuck high in a tree. And maybe things won't be so scary next time. (Ages 3 and older) --Karin Snelson
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE:
I bought this book for my son to memorize for an Oral Language festival his school was having. When he gave his oral report on this book he understood better about the fears he has. This book goes through most of the fears children have, that we adults have forgotten about. Not only did we laugh about the fears, we were reminded of how we felt being a child and "being hugged by someone we didn't like." It's a wonderful book for children to read and learn that their fears are not ridiculous, and not... more info
My kids love it:
This book has fun illustrations and clever text that can be a light read while addressing that some things are scary. My kids enjoy the book very much.
Good Conversation Starter:
This book is an excellent book for parents and or teachers to read to students before discussing dealing with the fears and the types of things that scare them. It is a book that reassures children that these types of things scare other people too. It would be an excellent book for parents to read to start a conversation to find out what scares their children. For teachers it could be a great book to read to have children write a class book on their own fears or as an example for writing about any emotion.
I don't understand the praise for this book:
I purchased this book after seeing the 5-star reviews. I was so disappointed after reading it that I checked the reviews again to make sure I'd purchased the correct book. I shared it with ten of our holiday party guests to invite their feedback before giving it to my children in case I was somehow missing something indeed worthy of praise. All agreed that this was a disturbing book for children that serves more to add to their existing ideas of what's scary, has no advice on dealing with these fears and... more info
