Anxiety, Libraries, And More!

This is a lovely contemporary middle grade novel about a young Pakistani American girl who is trying to find her personal art style and help her mom with her Pakistani clothing home shop. Deena struggles with anxiety, though she doesn’t know to call it that yet. Meanwhile, she’s also experiencing friend drama because of social media. I loved Deena’s warm, supportive Pakistani family and community, and the depiction of anxiety is so realistic. This is likely to be one of my favorite middle grade novels of the year. This releases today!

I really loved this novel, and I worry it’s not getting the number of readers it deserves! Andy, who is Chinese American, is the kind of kid who tends to follow along with whatever his overbearing best friend Cindy says. That worked fine in elementary school, but this year, they’re starting middle school, and everything feels different. Cindy forces him to join the Movement Club, a dance club, which doesn’t sit right with Andy. He also befriends Jameel, a Chaldean American, whom Cindy does not like for valid reasons. Meanwhile, Andy’s grandparents are visiting from China so his grandfather can seek needed medical care. Andy is also a talented artist who has anxiety and trichotillomania (hair-pulling). There’s also a character with an eating disorder. This is such a contemplative, nuanced novel.

I always thought my anxiety began during pregnancy, but then I read picture books like this, and I wonder. Maggie Smith is well known for her adult poetry collections and nonfiction, and this is her picture book debut. It’s a beautiful glimpse into a child’s life at night as she experiences intrusive thoughts while trying to sleep. Her mother comes in and snuggles with her in bed, reassuring her and guiding her to think about happy moments from the past, which helps calm the young girl’s mind. The illustrations are warm and tender. It’s a really beautiful and relatable book. This releases next Tuesday.

This is another very relatable picture book, as told by an ostrich with anxiety. Opal’s family is having a family party, and she’s in charge of picking up the dessert from the local bakery. But on the way, Opal constantly feels like everyone she encounters must be mad at her. This causes Opal to get a bad case of The Noodles, what her family endearingly calls Opal’s anxiety because of the way it makes her long neck wobble. By the end, Opal learns that not everyone’s feelings are directly related to her, and she enjoys the family party.