Children’s Books About Anxiety: Helping Your Anxious Child

Children’s Books About Anxiety: Helping Your Anxious Child

Anxiety is a healthy human emotion. It helps us detect danger and protect ourselves. And we have learned many ways to deal with it. But for kids, going through the experience can be quite scary. They often don’t understand the changes that their body and mind go through during anxiety attacks. And to make matters worse, parents are also at a loss on how to help. One of the most effective ways to help children understand about their anxiety is to share a storybook with them. Books can help them talk about and understand what triggers their anxiety. They also learn about many ways of dealing with anxiety from reading books. To help the parent of an anxious child, here’s a list of top-rated children’s books about anxiety.

These books are great for kids who experience low to moderate levels of anxiety and worrying. However, if your child’s worries interfere with their regular activities and making it hard to function, please see a doctor.

What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide to Overcoming Anxiety (What to Do Guides for Kids)

This is an interactive self-help book designed to guide 6-12-year-olds and their parents through techniques most often used in the treatment of generalized anxiety. This book is engaging and easy to follow. It educates, motivates, and empowers children to work towards change. This book is a useful tool for helping your anxious child to understand that he can do something about his worries. Psychologist and author Dawn Huebner wrote this wonderful children’s book. This is one of the most highly-rated children’s books about anxiety. It has received more than 600 mostly positive ratings on Amazon.

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Wilma Jean The Worry Machine

This picture book is one of the more popular children’s books about anxiety. It tells the story of Wilma Jean, a young girl who has anxiety. She worries a lot. So much that it makes her sick. Fortunately, her teacher offers her advice and tools to help her cope.

The former school counselor and teacher Julia Cook wrote this whimsical book. She is an award-winning children’s author, parenting expert and inspirational speaker. Anita DuFalla provided the beautiful illustrations for the book.

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Is A Worry Worrying You?

This is a wonderful children’s book that deals with worries and anxieties. It explains in simple and interesting ways what these feelings are. It also offers tips on how to manage these anxieties. Helping your anxious child with this picture book is so much fun!

Freelance author and lecturer Ferida Wolff wrote this wondrous book. She is also a yoga teacher and elementary school teacher.

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When My Worries Get Too Big! A Relaxation Book for Children Who Live with Anxiety

This is a cute little book that helps children with anxiety learn ways to relax and manage their emotions. It is already in its second edition. The first edition was targeted at children with Autism. But this edition focuses on anxiety disorders outside of  Autism. This book offers steps (including physical exercises) to attempt when anxiety attacks begin to get out of control. This is certainly one of the better children’s books about anxiety.

Former teacher Kari Dunn Buron wrote this book. She taught in K-12 with students on the autism spectrum for more than 30 years. She is a dog person.

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What to Do When You’re Scared and Worried: A Guide for Kids

This book is written for the 9 – 13 age group. It includes an introduction to the various types of worrying. The book also includes exercises to help kids narrow down what worries or scares them. It explains what your child’s body and mind go through when they start worrying.

The book does an excellent job of helping your anxious child. It recommends the use of “Fear Chasers” and “Worry Erasers” to help kids face their anxieties.

James J. Crist wrote this guide for kids. He is the author of several self-help books for children. He is also a psychologist and a certified substance abuse counselor in Woodbridge, Virginia.

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The Worry Glasses – Overcoming Anxiety

This book is about a little girl named MJ. It tells the story of how she learns how to defeat her worries. All through the story, her wonderful counselor Miss Jessica patiently helps her. This wonderful book explains anxiety in a way that children can easily understand. It offers proven and effective solutions for addressing fear and worry. This book is one of the more entertaining children’s books about anxiety. Its storyline and illustrations keep kids engaged until the very end. The book includes a list of exercises designed to relieve kids’ anxiety. It also offers tips to parents and adults who live with anxious children.

Donalisa Helsley wrote this book for children aged 3 to 9. She is an award-winning children’s book author. Donalisa has a Masters degree in Social Work. She is also a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). Her work experience includes 15 years in the area of behavioral health with children and adolescents. She is currently a family and children’s therapist.

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Sea Otter Cove: Introducing relaxation breathing to lower anxiety, decrease stress and control anger while promoting peaceful sleep

This is a book that teaches children how to use proper breathing techniques to calm down, lower stress, and control anger. Through playful sea otters and other delightful characters in the book, children get to experience belly breathing. This effective, self-calming technique is also known as diaphragmatic breathing or deep breathing. It can be used to lower stress and anxiety levels. This easy breathing exercise can also decrease pain and anger. This is certainly an effective tool in helping your anxious child.

Lori Lite wrote this book for children aged 4 to 11. She is a pioneer in the field of children’s stress management. She is well known for incorporating research-based, stress-reducing techniques into a storytelling format to treat children’s stress and anxiety. Lori’s mission is to help parents and children struggling with stress and self-esteem issues. She created Stress Free Kids and a line of books, CDs, and lesson plans designed to help children, teens, and adults decrease stress, anxiety, and anger.

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David and the Worry Beast: Helping Children Cope with Anxiety

This book is about a little boy named David. The story begins in the last few seconds of a basketball game. David attempts to shoot the ball but misses. His team ends up losing the game. After the game, David starts worrying about the missed shot. He also notices a small furry creature next to him. It is his worry beast. He continues to worry about the missed shot, and what his coach, teammates, and parents think. As he continues to worry, the furry creature grows. Which causes him to worry even more. As David continues to worry, so does the beast continue to grow. What must David do?

This is among the more interesting children’s books about anxiety. The colorful illustrations provide a visual representation of how much David has been worrying. This book mainly suggests that a child gets rid of his anxiety by talking about it. I feel though, that this technique must be combined with other tools and techniques discussed in other books in this list.

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Helping your anxious child about specific anxieties

These next few books address specific anxieties that children normally experience.

Wemberly Worried

Wemberly is a girl mouse. She worries about everything. From small things like spilling juice to big things like her parents meeting with an accident. Then it’s time for school to start. And Wemberly worries even more! Everyone, from her parents to her super-cool grandma tell her not to worry so much. But she can’t stop worrying. Maybe it will take somebody else to help her face her fears.

This is another one many children’s books about anxiety. However, the main focus of this book is on an anxiety about going to school. This definitely should be included in the list of books about helping your anxious child. Kevin Henkes wrote this book for children aged 4 to 8 years old. He is the author of many award-winning picture books and novels.

For a similar book about dealing with anxieties about going to school, see also My Friend Daniel Doesn’t Talk by Sharon Longo. Click on this link for a short review.

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The Invisible String

This book is a comforting story about two siblings who learn about an invisible string. This invisible string connects them with everyone they love, anytime, anywhere. Patrice Karst wrote this story to address children’s anxiety of being apart from the ones they love.

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See also:

4 Books to Help Your Child Overcome Back-to-School Anxiety

Best Children’s Hanukkah and Christmas Books: Holiday Books for Children of Interfaith Families

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