When I am anxious

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Lion Hudson for the e-arc copy to read and review. 

What an amazing read, I loved the way this was written, you were getting the biblical story of Moses told in an easy to read way but at each section you were also given questions, a thought or a way to connect your emotions and his together.

I love how the author was detailing the story in a mental health capacity to show that even the beloved people in the bible stories had these problems, that they struggled and had to learn, grow and adapt to their mental health.

I enjoyed reading the additional story inserts that connected to what was going on in the Moses story and how these people had the same difficulties to over come, and how in God they did.

This book is a wonderful read for anyone that wants to teach about God, believes in God or is trying to find an easy and relatable way of teaching and starting a thorough discussion for mental health difficulties that may be happening. The book provides many thinking points at the end, and sections to fill in and write down ideas, questions or feelings.

In this particular book it deals with Anxiety and how Moses was scared and too anxious to do what God had asked him to do. He’d tried and failed on his own once and never wanted to do it again for fear had grown inside him. Then God asked for a big help and he had to overcome that with the guidance and help from God and his brother to achieve what was asked, that meant he had to fight through his strong anxiety.

I really enjoyed this book and would be interested in more stories written the way this was.

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

This book is a fantastic resource for children  to learn about the bible and teachings from it. This book focuses on Moses and anxieties and gives children activities to do relating to themselves and the story. This book is enlightening for children and encouraging in many ways. I look forward to reading and sharing the next books with my children.

When I am Anxious: Moses and Other Stories by Debbie Duncan

Emotional wellbeing is absolutely essential. Even when life is calm, we need to make sure our children are growing up healthy – both physically and mentally. Understanding emotions helps them to make sense of the world, cope with changes and build resilience. Right now, in April 2020, we are living in an unprecedented time. Even as adults, there are new fears and worries about things that are beyond our control. Children are experiencing the unknown – no school, no activities, no friends, all sorts of changes they don’t understand. Worries and anxiety are completely normal but difficult to handle.

When I am Anxious by Debbie Duncan has been published at the perfect time. It gives parents/carers and their children a vehicle for exploring feelings of anxiety and strategies for dealing with them from a Christian perspective. As a part of the God Cares series, this chapter book aimed at age 8+ provides opportunities for adults and children to read, think, discuss, share and pray about what is troubling them.
Focussing on the story of Moses, children see that he wasn’t always the hero he is remembered as. He was worried, he thought he wasn’t good enough and, at times, he didn’t want to do the things God asked of him. This well-known story is broken down into sections developing key details about Moses’ journey through life. With facts and explanations to catch the interest of this older group of readers, this new angle helps children to understand that worries are normal and when they get to be too much, there are things we can do.  Links to other stories in the Bible (Gideon, Jesus’ birth, the Sermon on the Mount) help children to develop their understanding and make further connections. 

Each chapter is of manageable length with an opportunity to draw, write and reflect on the main points discussed. It allows children to be honest about how they feel and makes simple suggestions about what they can do to feel better, always pointing children back to God and to adults they trust. After the story, there is an exploration of anxiety itself – what might cause it, how it makes us feel and real strategies for dealing with it. The “Talking Points” section provides questions for children to think through on their own or with an adult focussing on the emotions of the people they meet in the story of Moses. This helps children to understand that they are not alone in their feelings and that God has seen it all before. He understands and can help. The suggested prayer and space to write their own allows children to reach out.

The final chapter of the book is for adults. Written by a mental health professional, it provides practical advice for parents, carers and teachers around anxiety in children. This is a thorough and thoughtful addition to the book. My favourite piece of advice is to talk with your child about someone who is brave and the advice they would give about feeling worried. Then imagine that person is on the other end of a walkie talkie. When you’re worried, listen to what they have to say. I talked about this with my son and he came up with a wonderful piece of advice from Yoda. I’m sure we’ll be contacting him by walkie talkie soon! The book ends with current and relevant on-line resources for families who need additional help. The recurring message for children and adults is that we are never alone and we can cope with our worries together. 

Other books in this series:
Readers:
God Cares When I am Strong: Friends in the Fire
God Cares When I am Afraid: Jesus Calms the Storm
Chapter Books:
God Cares When I Feel Down: Jonah and Other Stories

Thank you to NetGalley and Lion Hudson Limited for this beautiful book! It will be published in April 2020.

There are some interesting contant and areas for discussion in this book but I think it would be difficult to read for a child. I felt a bit overwhelmed by the words with no pictures for the age group - some illustrations to break the writing up would really really help. I had a family in mind as to who I would like to give this to due to difficulties they are going through but think the children would struggle. Maybe for older children this would be a good read or as a basis for sunday school / r.e. lessons to be planned around.

"When I Am Anxious" by Debbie Duncan is a perfect book for teaching Christian Ed. The author does a wonderful job teaching Bible stories and having children reflect and understand how the stories still relate to our life every day. Every parent and teacher knows that young children experience a lot of anxiety as they learn about the world and managing their own feelings and emotions. Duncan's books are simply perfect for read-along and discussion at home or in the classroom.

This is a good little chapter book taking 5 Bible stories that teach about being anxious. The chapters are short and manageable for kids between the ages of 7-10. The author also provides context and questions for the parents to engage the kids with if that is wanted and or needed. My only suggestion is that since this book appears to be geared  towards younger elementary kids, to add some illustrations. It doesn't have to become a picture book just a chapter book with illustrations sprinkled throughout..


Thank you Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book for my honest opinion.

This installment of the series is geared toward older children, as it is in more of a chapter book format. This one tells stories about Moses and talks about how he must have been feeling some anxiety at these various points of his life. And then another story from the Gospels is shared in the middle of that chapter, between two parts about Moses. All three parts of each chapter get into some explanation about the feelings that could have been going on with the various characters in each story and try to relate it to the child's life. The end of the chapter gives some kind of writing prompt of reflection for the child to use to contemplate his own feelings.

For this section, I liked how these familiar Bible stories were being used to help the child explore her own feelings. I felt it was a bit odd and disjointed to have a Gospel story thrown into the middle of the chapter with two parts about Moses surrounding it, though. It was like switching gears midstream somehow. But this did feel like it could be a self-guided study. I appreciated the suggestions it gave to the child about how to approach trusted adults for discussion and guidance.

Then the back of the book is a section for parents and caregivers about how to handle anxiety in a child and when to seek help. This is a great resource for parents. I just feel weird about having it in a book that is designed for a child to read on his own, especially in a book for older children. I think for some kids, it would increase their anxiety as they read the descriptions and start to wonder if that is going on with them.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a review copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When I am Anxious should a a book on every child’s shelf. This is a wonderful book with beautiful illustrations. The book will draw your children to God and help give their anxious hearts peace.