Review¦ Everyone feels sad or anxious sometimes, but it can be difficult for children in particular to express these feelings and how intense they are. The story of Cookie covers anxiety and depression in a gentle and heart-warming way for young children.
The Story
This book follows the story of Girl, gently exploring the topics of anxiety and depression in a way which is suitable for its target audience of 4-8 year olds. The story is told through the eyes of her pet dog, Cookie. What Cookie observes is something really funny. For example, in one place she says “The boy was called Stopit, but sometimes Girl called him Shoosh instead”. However, other times the book is more serious as Cookie notices that Girl is unhappy and withdrawn. This makes Cookie worried. She tries to lick the sad away and cheer her up, but sometimes even that doesn’t work. This book is great for opening discussions surrounding anxiety and depression and how things don’t go right all of the time.
What Autumn Thought
Autumn really enjoyed the illustrations and found the way it was written amusing. It helped open a conversation about how she feels sad sometimes and she discussed what makes her sad.
What I Thought
I love that this book shows that Cookie still loves Girl, even if she’s sad and doesn’t want to play. The love between Girl and Cookie is a really special and heart-warming relationship. It shows children the importance of loyalty and friendship. With rising levels of anxiety and depression, it is fantastic to have stories like this available to help gently explore these with children from a young age. This will help them to understand and articulate their feelings, increasing their mental wellbeing.
Cookie retails for £10.99 at EK Books.
Disclosure: We received a copy of this book in return for a review. As always, all views and opinions are honest and my own.