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The Stress Goblin's Hat is a brand new book we were offered to review. However it's a book with a difference, a book about childhood stress with the aim of helping children age 3-7 identify and deal with stress.
The Stress Goblin's Hat follows the adventures of the Stress Goblin as he tries to catch his magical hat before it is too late. His hat loves to make children upset and anxious and the adventure follows the Goblin as he tries to get his hat back.
Once we got over the fact it wasn't a unicorn or princess base story, H really enjoyed the book. The pictures were bright and colourful, really engaging H and letting us discuss the book based on the pictures as well as the words.
Helpfully the book has a page of notes for parents, which is really helpful. I did also have to explain a few words in the book to H as she didn't understand them, however she is 4 so at the lower end of the age range the book is aimed at.
I do think this booked helped reinforce ideas of how she should deal with certain situations and even just using the story as a basis for remembering incidents where she's been upset or stressed and how she could have got over it or what the child should have done if the hat wasn't making them upset.
The Stress Goblin's Hat is an engaging picture book for children age 3-7 created to give children the ability to identify when they are feeling stresses and the tools that they need to deal with it.
The Stress Goblin's hat is a bit different to H's usual favourite books where she's currently choosing fairies, princesses and unicorn books. At first she saw it and said "but I don't like gnomes!" She did get quite into the story though which was good and she did understand the concepts. It was really good to be able to talk about situations that can be stressful and that H has experienced when she was calm and not in those situations. I think being able to talk about those situations and those in the book really was helpful as we're always more rational then and what we talk about sinks in more.
It is reassuring that the book was written by experts in the field:
Dr Rubina Mian is a research scientist who has been studying the effects of stress for over 25 years. She studied at Liverpool and Birmingham Universities. Omar Mian studied at Manchester University and is a writer and former dentist. Together they have witnessed first-hand the devastating impact that stress can have on young lives. They both live in the Birmingham area.
Professor Panos Vostanis is a world expert on childhood trauma who has researched stress-related factors in children from pre-school age to adolescence. Professor Vostanis is the Professor of Child and Adolescent Mental Health at Leicester University and is a Visiting Professor at University College London. He is also a founder member of World Awareness of Children in Trauma.
Maybe next time they'll write a unicorn or princess book!
