This is part of the Big Bright Feelings series and so I knew it would be amazing. It is a beautifully reassuring story about finding ways to deal with shyness. A must for primary school library.

Another Tom Percival book to love!! We absolutely love this series in our house and this one was another hit. Definitely a resource I will use at school too with pupils.

Sammy Feels Shy is the latest in the Big Bright Feelings books series.

Initially these books starting with Perfectly Norman in 2017, each tackled a facet of a neurodivergent child’s emotional landscape, not fitting in, temper outbursts, anxiety and making friends while different. They are all wonderful, sensitive and explore emotions intelligently. As a children’s bookseller they were staple recommendations of mine in helping autistic kids explore their traits and assist those with emotional processing difficulties. The series has since expanded into more general emotions, but is no less effective.

The latest, coming in July is about Sammy, and surprisingly enough from the title, he feels shy. The book represents increasing shyness with Sammy not just blushing but gradually turning pink. Percival captures the little things that make kids self conscious really well. He uses the concept of friendship and a safe person as a way to combat shyness, but doesn’t dismiss it as something that ever totally goes away.

The art is, as always, stunning. The use of black and white, partially coloured tableaus and rainbows are as effective as they are beautiful.

Another success for this useful series!

This is a lovely addition to the Tom Percival books and one I look forward to reading with my class. It's ok to be shy.

A book that very clearly and obviously shows a shy kid's quandary, through the use of colour – first he lives in a full-on rainbow world, but the colours are removed from it as he makes himself pinker and pinker, reacting to this time when he couldn't speak, that slip-up, that goof… In the end he's fully pink – but perhaps the bright lights and colours of a fairground trip could restore his natural hues. This is clearly a Book With a Purpose, but it manages to have an entertaining story to get its message across – meaning it will be on a worthwhile shelf for adults to pass on to kids when called for, but could also be seen as something picked up for enjoyment. It certainly doesn't have the look of a worthy message book. A strong four stars.

This is a gorgeous story about how shyness can overtake us and stop us doing things we love. I love how important Sammy’s friends and family are in his story and helping him overcome his shyness. This is another brilliant addition to the series!

All of Tom Percival's Big Bright Feelings series are just perfect, helping young children to work through the big feelings that can sometimes cause them worry. Poor Sammy is fine when it's just him and his dad but when there are too many people around he feels warmth in his cheeks and just doesn't know what to say. For adults the story is a good lesson in self fulfilling prophesies - if you continually remark on a child being shy it will certainly not improve their self confidence! I loved the colouring of the pages , predominantly black and white with splashes of pink for Sammy's cheeks up until he makes a friend and gains confidence in a brightly coloured fairground. Definitely a book to add to the collection of any child and would be perfect in a primary school library.

We love Tom Percival - he is big in our household and our child grew up with his stories.
As always, the art is excellent.
The themes and messages are great.
The characters are relatable, likeable and lovely.
As for the story, my child loved it.
In my case, I found the ending to be rushed. Like it could have tied up better with one or more beats.
This is minor though.
Sammy’s father makes a choice to help him. The line about that idea could be more powerful to hint that the dad knew it would certainly help Sammy’s situation.

This was a beautiful story which explored the concept of shyness. A feeling that some children do explore and this story highlighted that it’s ok to be shy and how it can be managed. The illustrations were just stunning throughout the story. Another well written story that’s easily accessible to children.

☺️🩷 Sammy Feels Shy 🩷 From bestselling creator of the Big Bright Feelings series, Tom Percival!

An uplifting story, that encourages little ones to not let feelings of shyness stand in the way of having fun.

⭐️ Sammy Feels Shy
📕 🎨 By Tom Percival @tompercivalbooks
❤️ Published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books @bloomsburychildrens

⭐️ COMING SOON - July 2025 ⭐️

Sammy loves having fun.

At home, everything feels easy. But, when he’s surrounded by lots of people, his cheeks glow a brilliant bright pink 🩷🩷🩷 and he doesn’t feel like he can talk. Lot’s of people say ‘he’s so shy!’ and that seems to make things even worse! So much worse, that he turns completely pink, from head to toe. 😳

Until… one day, Sammy makes a lovely new friend, Lily, who doesn’t see his shyness. And, little by little, having fun together makes his pinkness fade away. Until ultimately, he decides to NEVER let his shyness stop him from having fun. 🤩

Awww!!!! What an absolute treasure of a story, that’s so full of heart. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As someone who has always been super, SUPER shy, it’s lovely to see that the focus of this story is building confidence and having fun! - Because that is what is so important for our little ones. 🥰

I have to admit that I’m always a bit skeptical about books that feature feelings of being shy, because it’s SO difficult to get authentically right. But, Sammy Feels Shy had us nodding along and recognising all those little key details of feeling self conscious, with hot cheeks, and definitely not feeling confident about speaking up.

The struggle is very real, and we love how this story has captured that awkward feeling, yet remaining so reassuring and lots and lots of fun. This would be a great book to have in the classroom! 📚

The illustrations, as expected are completely gorgeous and so endearing! With lots of stand out ‘pink’ moments, coupled with bursts of colour as we see Sammy feeling back to his usual self. 🩷🩷🩷

As always, any of Tom Percival’s books are a joy to have on the bookshelf!

I love this series of books and this one did not disappoint! I use them all the time within my classroom, to help children understand their feelings, to support PHSCE lessons and to read simply just for pleasure.

I would extremely recommend purchasing this book when it is released! It is beautifully decorated, the story is beautiful and fun and will ignite some great conversations with children. Thank you @tompercivalbooks for helping some of our smallest readers understand such humungous feelings

My children and I absolutely loved this book! Sammy Struggles With Shyness is not only beautifully illustrated and engaging, but it also handles the topic of shyness in such a gentle, reassuring, and relatable way.

As a parent, I found myself really connecting with Sammy’s story. I wish this book had been around when I was younger—I was the shy one growing up, and I remember all too well the feeling of being overwhelmed in busy environments, just like Sammy.

This book opened up a great conversation with my children about what it means to feel self-conscious or nervous, and how those feelings are completely normal. The warmth throughout made it easy for them to connect, and it reassured them that it’s okay to feel shy sometimes.

A must-read for any family or classroom!

I read this with my 6 year old who has previously been a fan of this series. We have Finn's Big Fibs, Ruby's Worry and we picked Billy's Bravery for our World Book Day Book. I explained I needed his feedback for this new book. He felt that Sammy did not 'match' (alliterate) with Shy. We talked about this and eventually decided that Sean would have been a choice that he felt would have sounded better. My son also felt it was inconsistent that Sammy's Dad noticed that he had turned pink when in other stories, Ruby's grown ups do not see her worry. Apparently in another story too, a child noticed the big feeling but not the grown up. We felt that the overall arc of the story was nice though and the illustrations were lovely. These were just a few points that he felt were inconsistent.

I adore Tom Percival's Bright Feelings books. I have found them invaluable as a primary 1 teacher to start conversations about uncomfortable feelings.

Sammy Feels Shy does all of the wonderful things the other books do too, but exploring that feeling of shyness. We have Sammy trying to figure out what's going on and absolutely stunning illustrations to help visualise exactly how he is experiencing his emotions.

Most importantly, the reader gets to see how Sammy regulates his emotions eventually. We all might feel shy, but with some tips from Sammy we might find we're able to cope just a little bit better.

I was so excited to get the chance to review this book and I'm even more delighted it was as wonderful as I expected.

My daughter loves these books and this is another great one. We discussed feeling shy after we read it together and she understood how Sammy feels and felt bad for him but she was very happy with the ending!