I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Oswald Messweather is an amazing picture book full of fabulous illustrations. The story is very tenderly written and is about Oswald, a little boy who has OCD. Oswald finds counting his crayons a calming way of dealing with overwhelming emotions but also finds this tiring to do countless times a day. Oswald finds a much better way of finding calm at school one day and is praised by his teacher without being drawn attention to for his OCD.
This book is fantastic for children who siluffer with OCD or for children who know someone with this trait. This book helps both children and adults understand how a child with OCD feels inside and how they can support them.
.

🖍This a children’s picture book about anxiety and OCD.

🖍The story focuses on the emotional impact on the child during anxiety-inducing situations and shares how Oswald deals with those anxious situations by counting his crayons.

🖍Oswald’s teacher refocuses his attention toward a creative outlet with his crayons which helps him to calm down and engage with the class activity.

🖍While I don’t think this book intends to state that a creative outlet will solve all problems regarding OCD and anxiety, it does present it as a potential option for caregivers to consider in these situations.

🖍Oswald’s distress and anxiety is depicted with care (both in words and imagery) and I think kids with similar experiences will certainly connect with him.

🖍I absolutely recommend this book for any child with anxiety or OCD.

Thank you @netgalley and Wombat Books for an electronic version of this book, which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

This was a really good book talking about OCD and maybe a few more disorders mixed in. I think it's healthy to see that not everyone is the same and that we all have different quirks.

Beautifully illustrated! Oswald simply cannot tolerate any sort of mess or disorder but he can ease his discomfort by counting his crayons in the proper order. One day his teacher encouraged him to draw and color, and for him, this was the answer to managing. Wonderful book!
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Wombat Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Mental health is a big topic nowadays, which often carries a big stigma around its topic, making it a bit of a taboo subject. Over recent years, initiatives have been developed to try and combat these stigmas around talking and promoting a healthy response and attitude in response to it. I work as an early years educator and at my setting we have done numerous and extensive training in understanding and supporting mental health in children and young people. Particularly in the current climate and world wide issues that we are facing, it is important children can understand their feelings and thoughts, and learn ways to cope and talk about them freely, without fear.

This book had a nice concept to it in it being a way to introduce children to feelings that can overwhelm and worry them. Depicting them in pictures through the messiness of Oswalds thoughts. It is clear to us, as adults, Oswald is distressed by mess and has discovered that by unpacking, lining up, twisting and turning, arranging and cleaning his crayons, he can bring a bit of calm into his mind and ease some of these anxieties he is experiencing. Which is fab that he has a kind of coping mechanism that helps him during those times. However, during the class task, when the teacher suggests he draw a colourful diagram to support the activity, it kind of quickly wraps it all up and gives the sense that because of this one event, suddenly life is so much better for Oswald, which wouldn’t be the case in real life.

I like the idea of the story and I am a big believer in the need to spread awareness to all about mental health and the stigmas surrounding the topic but I feel like rather than wrapping up the story like it did, it could have focussed more on this new way Oswald has been introduced to to cope, and not make it seem like all is okay for him now, because that is not a realistic message to give to children who could use this kind of story to gain understanding surrounding this area of mental health.

I thought this book had lovely illustrations that depicted Oswalds messy thoughts and worries clearly, it is a good concept to approach but for me it needed a bit more to it, especially being such a big topic to approach.

The overall storyline is sweet and enjoyable and the reader is rooting for Oswald the whole time. I feel many student with ASD or anxiety could see themselves in Oswald. I do worry however that the story ties itself into a neat bow. I was thinking of many of my students who can’t simply put the messy thoughts away by doodling.

I loved the illustrations in this book, especially the Bear Pit and the tangled thoughts that Oswald has when he sees a mess.

I love that this book is talking about OCD and how Oswald uses his crayons to help sort out his tangled thoughts and calm his itch and his leg jiggles. However, the author made it appear as if all of the compulsions stopped as soon as the teacher had Oswald draw a detailed picture with his crayons. While you can use techniques to mitigate the compulsions that doesn't happen with one drawing.

I would have liked to see an author's note at the end of the book explaining a bit more about OCD.

Oswald has (coded) OCD, which is triggered by messes. To make his intrusive thoughts less all-consuming, he lines up, cleans, and counts his crayons. It distracts him to being a part of everything-- until his teacher asks him to do the drawings, very neat and precise drawings, for a class project. And Oswald feels better!

I'm a big fan of destigmatizing mental health, and Oswald Messweather could be a good beginner story for that. However, I dislike how his compulsions just "go away" because he draws in class.

This book includes British spellings of "colouring" and "mum."

Oswald is so relatable to me. It is not clearly mentioned, but he suffers from OCD. It is a wonderful book for children to understand so different and sometimes difficult feelings and behaviors. Mental health is such an important topic to have conversations about at an early age. I think this is wonderful, and I think it will be close to many hearts.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is a must-read for all children so that they can understand what an OCD is. Children can be cruel sometimes, and the only way to make them understand how some children can be different is through education and books! This excellent book may create miracles in classes and playdates. Loved every page!

This well-illustrated picture book depicts a young boy's experiences with OCD. The text and the pictures work well together, showing the distress that he feels over mess and disorder and the temporary comfort that he derives from a ritual concerning his crayons. The story's simplistic conclusion cannot accurately reflect what it takes to overcome OCD, but I like the message about the importance of a creative outlet, and this story does as much as a picture book can.

However, it is important for parents and educators to know that this book never specifically names Oswald's affliction. It is clear to the well-informed reader that he is suffering from OCD, but because this disorder is often misunderstood, I think it would have been helpful if the author had included an additional note with more information or resource ideas for children and parents who are dealing with something similar.

I thought that this book was lovely and it will help any parent and child discuss the topic of OCD, something that is becoming more prevent at the moment with the Covid-19 outbreak and the repeated actions of washing hands and routines – hands, face, space as my three-year-old shouts out when she sees the signs out and about or on TV.

The story was well written and I loved the way that the topic was covered, OCD is not just about cleanliness as some may think, it is about doing repetitive actions to try to keep calm and these can often get out of hand as the book shows and I loved the way that the topic was address with the use of his crayons to try and express himself to get over this as best he can.

A fun and colourful read with some lovely illustrations – it is 4 stars from me for this one!

Oswald Messweather cannot tolerate mess and chaos in his life. When around it he gets anxious, itchy and his legs begin to jiggle. He runs to his crayons for peace and comfort. He counts them, he twists them and then he wipes them clean over and over and over again. This action brings his mind and heart solace for a time as he tunes out his surroundings and focuses on his bright joyful colours.

The talented illustrator visually documents his responses to the bedlam with black, tangled, unruly lines. In contast she portrays that Oswald's crayons provide a bright, cheerful pathway that calms and comforts him. Through loving supportive adults all around him he learns to cope with his obsessive disorder (OCD) by using his crayons to draw fun inspiring pictures.

On one hand it is very sad to see Oswald's torment as he encounters scenarios of messiness and disorder in his world but inspiring to hear that he can recover and achieve healing. This book would be a wonderful read aloud in a classroom. I would recommend it hoping that it would be a guide and a help to conquer OCD thus setting kids free from the troubling disorder.

Oswald Messweather tells the story of a boy who hates mess and disorder, and soothes himself by cleaning and arranging his crayons. It's a heartfelt little story, and I love the fantastical, whimsical, pencil-drawing illustrations. Especially effective are the artist's way of rendering Oswald's anxieties as a drowning tangle of unruly lines, and the shift from darker to bright colors as Oswald finds a way to calm and control his thoughts. The story seems like it's lacking something - tips for kids who feel like Oswald, maybe, or some kind of middle step for how Oswald gets from A to Z, something that's helpful beyond the help of simply showing a kid going through these kind of feelings. But I appreciate the way it depicts Oswald, honestly and earnestly, without him being mocked or told to be anything other than who he is, and being given help to figure out how to react to the often over-stimulating world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wombat Books for the advance review copy!

Calming illustrations and alliterative text create a strong picture book about anxiety, compulsions, and coping.

Oswald can't control the environment around him, and when it gets to be too much, he counts crayons. The routine gives him a place to put the extra energy he feels when all those thoughts build up and become too much.

I appreciate how the author did not create a book around Oswald being made fun of for his behavior. This truly was a book about handling the strange and different ways people's brains react to stimuli. I can see this being helpful for all kids, not just kids with atypical neurodevelopment. We thankfully live in a world where kids do not have to hide their fears and worries, and I am grateful for books that allow kids to explore emotions, feelings, and concerns outside of what the world considers "normal" emotions.

Seeing Oswald handle his problem and receiving help without judgment will give kids a safe space to explore their own issues they tackle, whether it is like Oswald's or not.

This was the cutest book. It woukd be wonderful for a read aloud in the classroom. I would recommend it to any of my teacher friends. Oswald gets nervous several times a day. While at home with his brotherz when he steps into one of the rooms of the house and other times. He uses his tristy crayons to calm and in some way settle down a little..he twists and puts the crayons in a certain order. By the end of the book, he realizes that he can just color with the crayons and not have to put them in an order.

I didn't fully understand the meaning behind this book but it was a nice story all the same.
At first I thought perhaps Oswald was autistic, but as the story went on j wasn't so sure.
Illustrations were very cute.

I didn't quite get the point of the book, but I suspect that it would be good for certain children. I assume that Oswald has some sort of mental issue I have never run across. I would probably buy the book, but it would be very far down my list, unless I had a paretns whose child needs to hear what is in it.