My Monster and Me

Charming and effective.

In author and The Great British Baking Show-winner Hussain’s latest picture book, a brown-skinned child ruminates on their "monster," a horned buttercup-colored creature who is the child’s constant companion. Hussain’s text remains lighthearted while compassionately conveying the child’s difficulties: "I told her how my monster just wouldn’t go away. It WOULDN’T leave me alone. Ever." As the child speaks to careful listener Gram, the monster shrinks to a manageable size, providing a useful model for empathic adults. Bailey’s art emphasizes the monster as not malicious, only inconvenient; an author’s note reveals Hussain’s own experiences with panic disorder "for as long as I can remember." This evenhanded illustration of anxiety and panic attacks will give many young readers language to describe their own experiences. 

Copyright 2021 Publisher’s Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 1-For as long as the small brown-skinned child can remember, anxiety and panic attacks have been a constant in his life. The metaphor for this is a small, hairy, yellow creature that increases in size as the boy grows up, and becomes more demanding, too. It hides whenever anyone else is around, and then grows huge again when the boy leaves the security of home. It rules his life, not even allowing him to go outside and play with other children: "It stood in the way and wouldn't budge." One day, when he is overwhelmed, the distressed boy tells his grandmother about his monster and the creature is suddenly diminished; it becomes small enough to fit in the child's pocket. What a sweet, accessible way to bring a conversation about panic attacks into a child's understanding! Readers will see that talking about the "monster" is the path to feeling better, a lesson they could apply to other problems. Though his anxiety never goes away completely, the youngster learns to manage his feelings better. Illustrations of the furry monster are not frightening but serve as a visual manifestation of an internal disorder. VERDICT Hussain, who won The Great British Bake Off, seems to understand children just as much as cooking, granting them a path to coping, without ever belitting the sources of their fear.-Maryann H. Owen, Oak Creek P.L., WI .

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.