The text has two main characters- a worry monster and a boy called Archie, who is worried about starting at a new school.
Archie is reminded about all his (possible) worries by the worry monster, who looks a lot like a sock puppet with the body of a dragon.
Archie worries so much that his head hurts, his tummy flutters and his heart pounds. Archie follows a series of simple steps to manage his anxiety that children could follow if needed, including deep breathing, considering the facts, and being assertive. Through following these steps, Archie makes the worry monster disappear.
Go Away, Worry Monster! provides children with useful strategies to manage stress and anxiety. At the get-go, the worry monster is larger than life. As Archie becomes more assertive by following his series of steps, he grows in confidence and stature. Juxtaposed to this, the worry monster shrinks until he finally disappears. Perspective is cleverly used by the illustrator to contrast how the characters develop throughout the text.
This quality text is beautifully illustrated. The background colour in the text is purple, suggesting night time and a scary setting. Contrasting to this, the illustrations are bright colours, which stand out due to the dark background. There are lots of interesting textures in the illustrations. You can even see the different colours of knitted stitches on the worry monster, which may elicit interesting conversations with young children.
The illustrations work together with the text to identify aspects of character in this imaginative book. I would have to make sock puppets with my class after reading this text. As well, we would have art lessons comprising texture rubbing so students understand the clever artwork that is evident in this text. There are some interesting tier 2 vocabulary words that require explicit teaching, and would support student writing activities e.g. decided, scrawled, realised and favourite.
Related units:
For teaching units of work that explore books with similar themes, why not try:
- There's no such thing, by Heidi McKinnon, explores fears, reality and imagination and monsters - through the eyes of relatable character Bear.
- Tricky's Bad Day, by Alison Lester, explores emotional wellbeing and coping with strong emotions with warmth and humour.