Children's Book Review: Gloria's Big Problem - Me, him, the dog and a baby!

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This week’s children’s book review is all about Gloria’s Big Problem* by Sarah Stiles Bright and Mike Deas. The book was published by Tilbury House Publishers and it can be purchased on Amazon*.

Gloria loves to sing, dance, and act in her bedroom, but not in public. No way. Gloria’s big problem makes sure of that, following her wherever she goes and constantly reminding her that she’s anxious and frightened, that she’s not good enough, and that everyone will laugh at her. Anxious Gloria worries all the time, about everything. Until, one day, Gloria summons all her courage to try out for a community theater production. She marches herself to the audition, and her big problem marches right in behind her. She gets up on stage, and her big problem takes a seat in the front row and starts to laugh at her. And then at last she yells “STOP!”, and her big problem shrinks to a little problem, and Gloria wins a part in the play.

When I was growing up no one ever really spoke about mental health, especially not in children. I think it’s something that has come a really long way since then and it’s something so important that we need to speak about with our own children. If Erin is upset or worried about something we always encourage her to speak about her feelings but this can be really hard for a lot of children.

Main character Gloria really loves to sing but only in the safety of her own bedroom. There’s no way she could do it in public because there’s that little voice telling her that she can’t, that she’s not good enough. Anxiety is a horrible feeling and Gloria worries about everything. She worries what people might think, what people might say and she worries that she’ll mess up or do something wrong. Gloria’s big problem is there wherever she goes and won’t go away.

Mental health issues can be really crippling and they can really take over your life. As seen with Gloria, anxiety can stop you from doing things that you love and it can be hard to find your way to the other side. I really enjoyed watching Gloria battle with her anxiety and to see how she overcame her fears of performing in public. This is something that children can be especially worried about with things like school concerts or plays that they might want to take part in.

To help get the point across, Gloria’s ‘problem’ is illustrated as a huge green monster. I think this will really help children to understand why mental health issues can be a really big deal and how scary they might be. Gloria’s Big Problem uses a visual idea to really help children to talk about something that might be bothering them or maybe, just to start children thinking about things like mental health.