Thank Goodness For Bob, a picture book from Matthew Morgan and Gabriel Alborozo, is a gem of a book which is wonderful for little worriers.
‘Max worried. A lot.’
Poor Max worries about a huge myriad of things – the dark, nobody likes / people like him too much, being kidnapped by aliens. Morgan’s delicate language, puts in to words the confusion Max is feeling,
‘Max had so many worries that they filled his head,
making him feel dizzy and numb.’
He feels his parents are too busy to listen and his sister would tease him… but really they are worried about Max.
Luckily there’s Bob the pet dog – Bob is a brilliant listener. When Max talks about his worries ‘they bubbled out of his head and floated around the room,’ and that’s when Bob and Max have lots of fun with those pesky worries. This is a brilliant double page spread, where Gabriel Alborozo’s illustrations really help readers to visualise how to deal with worries.
I love how Morgan lets children accept that worrying is ‘natural’, whilst providing them with a great, easy to use strategy to use when they get too much. Alborozo’s clean, crisp illustrations are a perfect match for the narrative. Calm and relate-able they’ll help little listeners connect with the message.
Thank Goodness For Bob is a must-have picture book for little worriers.
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