Title: Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears
Author: Emily Gravett
Publisher: Pan Macmillan, A$14.99RRP
Publication date: 01/10/08
Format: Soft cover
ISBN: 9780230016194
For ages: 4 – 10
Type: Picture Book
About: Question: do these fears really belong to a little mouse? or to a particular author/illustrator? or to all of us?
Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears lists a stack of common fears from knives and the dark to dogs and spiders... and makes light of them (especially the fear-of-dark one) in a way only Gravett knows how.
In the opening of the book, the author assures kids that everyone is afraid of something; yes, even grownups, but most especially little mice who are just so teensy and so readily at risk of being sucked down a toilet or having their tails removed by sharp instruments of the kitchen (oh, the photographic reference to the Three Blind Mice on the fear of knives (Aichmophobia) page is priceless).
With Gravett's typical visual and verbal panache, she encourages little readers to use the space on the book's pages to write about their own fears, and so help them overcome them. The use of textured images, flaps and fold out pages (and even a map of the Isle of Fright!), kids will put aside any trepidation to avidly explore this book - and discover there's nothing to fear but fear itself.
Love it.
This book is available online
