While I liked the intent of the book, how it was executed did not excite me. I suppose there are parents that can use this story to help talk through anxiety, but I know with my own daughter who experiences anxiety, she'd find this story out of touch with her situation. Her struggles aren't as simply solved as breathing in and out.

Interest Level: K-3

Do you ever feel anxious or worried? Do you ever have the "what if" worries? Do these worries sprout from you like gnarled tree branches? Bea is about to have her birthday party and she has so many worries - what if no one plays with me?, what if we didn't bake enough cake?, what if... what if... what if... Bea has so much anxiety that she can't even enjoy her own birthday party. Bea has to go out back and do her calming exercises - breath in and breath out. She has to clear her mind of all of the "what if" worries. Can Bea overcome her anxiety and enjoy her own birthday party? Will all of her "what if" worries be breathed away or is her party ruined? Read this great book to find out the answers to all of these questions!

This is a phenomenal book to help children cope with the anxieties of life. It teaches them to go away to a quiet place and let your breathing calm you down. It lets kids know that it is okay to have worries and then once you calm down they will find most of these worries were for nothing. Bea lets kids know that they are not alone when it comes to anxiety. Everyone has them and it's up to you to control it. Every child (and adult) should have this book if they deal with ongoing anxiety issues. Don't miss this one!!

I loved reading this book with my 10 year old son. Such an accurate description of how anxiety can take hold, and how to best get it to release that hold over us. Written in a way that is easy for young children to understand. We need more books like this that approach mental health topics in a positive way that is perfect for starting our young children on the right path to nurturing their own mental health. Highly recommended!

This could be a good resource for a one on one storytime with a child suffering from anxiety. I wish I had more stories that talked about anxiety growing up, maybe then I would have realized others suffered from it too.

Bea is about to have a birthday party but she's full of anxiety with the what ifs. What if no one comes? What if no one likes me? What if the balloons float away? A story about a little girl who has anxiety and how she handles it so that she can enjoy her party.

In this book we follow Bea as she gets completely worked up with worry over her about-to-start birthday party. Stressing about all the little details has her body going into overdrive. When she's able to take a step outside, feel the peace of nature, and work on breathing and mindfulness exercises she is able to calm herself some.

I'm usually not a huge fan of rhyming books, but I don't mind it at all in this one. The illustrations are not my favourite sort, but they do a good job of showing the feelings of claustrophobia one can feel as anxiety hits. I like that this book gives a pretty accurate description of how too much worry feels, and I love that it shows some coping mechanisms.

Overall, I give this 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Magination Press for providing me with a DRC of this book.

I received a digital copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley. Honestly, this is now one of my favorite children's books. "Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree" focuses on social anxiety in a way that is easy to understand and incredibly accurate. The author depicts social anxiety by describing it as a tree that continues to grow as anxiety builds up, which is exactly how it can feel. My only critique would be the style of the artwork, but that is purely due to my style preferences. I would recommend this to both children and adults.

I was given an advanced copy of the book to read. I really enjoyed the story. It teaches children how to handle their anxiety and overcome fear. I would definitely use this book in my classroom.

Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree was an excellent book for children to better understand how worry starts and grows. Then it quickly moves into how you have power over it. Great read!

Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree introduces us to Bea, a young girl who is very anxious about her birthday party. What if there isn’t cake? What if her friends don’t like her? What if everything goes wrong? When Bea becomes overwhelmed by her anxiety, she runs outside to her favorite tree and focuses on her breath to calm her thinking down.
Beautiful, lyrical language paired with lovely illustrations make for a wonderful way to read about and discuss anxiety in children.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions are my own.

This is a great book for teaching children the basics of anxiety and breathing exercises. Using the willow tree branches to represent how anxiety can grow and make you feel trapped is a visual that I think can be understood by the children this book is written for. I also really liked when Bea was using her breathing and mindfulness strategies to calm herself and take on the situation causing her stress. I would highly recommend this book to parents, teachers, and librarians. I plan to use it in my own work as a school psychologist when working with students with anxiety and difficulties self-calming.

A sweet little book about children dealing with anxiety. I don't know if it was the layout on the Kindle version but I couldn't quite get the rhythm of this book, but I still liked it for its message. This would be a good read for any child who struggles with anxiety.

I received this eBook from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Mindful Bea and the Worry Tree was a cute story about a young girl who throws a birthday party. It touched on some different struggles that a young girl has when she thinks about throwing her party. I thought it was a simple, yet cute story that would be great to read to a young girl that worries a lot about things going on in life.

Finding your center is at the heart of this story. Bea, a child suffering from anxiety disorder, has a panic attack on, what I assume, is her birthday. her friends are coming over and she's in a real tizzy about it. But she runs to her favorite place and calms herself down. I think this book might be useful for some children. It teaches them to slow down and breathe and let the stress go. Illustrations are lovely.

This is another entry in the series published by the American Psychological Association. Thanks to them and to NetGalley for the e-galley of this book which was given to me in exchange for my honest opinion.

The illustrations in this book are appealing and much of the text is rhyming. Bea is expressive throughout. Bea starts out as a pretty happy kid. However as Bea starts to think about her birthday party, she begins to worry about all that could go wrong. She perseverates in her thinking and her worries grow and grow, as shown in the illustrations of the willow branches with leaves. Plenty of space is given to Bea's concerns. Her mother tries to help and Bea also helps herself through mindful breathing, a good technique and one that is empowering.

I think that this book could be helpful to children who experience excessive anxiety. I also feel that it would be important to talk with whoever is reading this book, as they may feel more worried as they see all of the things that Bea worries about. This story serves as a reminder that children's anxieties should be respected and addressed, not jollied away. It is another helpful entry in a helpful series.series.

I really liked the artistic style of this book including the message and the delivery of the illustrations. Great job overall.

3 stars!

I love books that deal with anxiety for kids. With that being said- this one, while the content was good, illustrations nice, the wording was just way too complex for a younger child to really grasp.I felt it was a little over the top and could have been watered down a bit to engage the child more on their level. I found myself scratching my head a little with this one. I recommend it because of its subject matter- as a tool for teachers and parents, but I do not feel it will really grab a child's attention.

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me this Arc in return for an honest review!

Bea is a little girl with big anxiety. Her birthday party is starting and her anxiety begins to overtake her (in the form of a willow tree).
There are certain aspects of this story that I love. Worry is a willow tree that snakes and crawls on Bea, she becomes consumed by it, until she realizes that she knows what to do to take control back.
I love that we have the visual aide of the tree. I love that Bea knows what to do, and takes control of her anxiety without needing adult instruction. I love the illustrations. I love the rhyming.
Two things I did not love about this book:
1. The kindle format was all wonky and very difficult to read. (Perhaps the mistake was on my part, however I felt it was worth mentioning)
2. There are a lot of metaphors in this book.
While I think metaphors can be a very good thing, and helpful for the reader to better understand what is happening in the story, this book was littered with them. There seemed to be at least one metaphor on every page. It didn't distract from the story, but I felt like it limited the applicability of the book to a certain age range. (Some examples: "it sprouts alive, unleashed, unbound." "with gnarled roots, this kind of tree feeds on thoughts" "what if worry springs. Worry speaks" -and that's all on one page).
As I stated before, I don't think the metaphors are a bad thing. I just that that it requires that the child reading it be a bit more advanced. With the rhyming and the illustrations, I feel like this book could better serve a larger age range if it were a little more simple.
3. It seemed a bit choppy. (Again, this could be because of the kindle format) The author, I believe, wanted to show the way that Bea was thinking by cutting off sentences."And what do I do if I have to throw-" and "Come on, Bea. Try to-" for example. This is effective in showing the interruption of her thoughts but, again, I feel like because of this it is not appropriate for younger readers.
This was a great book, and I am thinking so critically of it because I can imagine its uses in a classroom or group setting. Being a teacher myself, I would say that this book with its rhymes, metaphors and choppy wording, would be more appropriate for ages 9 and up. (That's about late 4th grade).
My daughter also happens to have anxiety, and I think I will be purchasing this book for her personal use when she gets older.


Thanks to NetGalley and the Author for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book with my grade school child who also has worries and anxiety. We found this book to be relatable and easy to read. Bea's worry tree was an excellent way to show the heaviness people feel when they have worries they "carry around". It was a great way of showing what anxiety can feel like and also shared excellent breathing and coping techniques to help calm down when things feel like 'too much''. This was engaging and perfect for an elementary aged child to relate with and also learn from. Thank you to NetGalley and Magination Press for sharing a copy of this book with us, all opinions are our own.

This story is a nice little rhyming piece about a little girl suffering from anxiety. What’s nice about this story (compared to others regarding mental health and anxiety( is that it shows the reader the constant ‘what if-ing’ people struggling with anxiety may go through and the method that Bea uses to overcome this. The rhyming allows the story to flow. It is definitely a suitable level to use in primary classrooms - Ks1 and Ks2.