Violet Shrink
Author: Christine Baldacchino
Illustrator: Carmen Mok
Groundwood Books
Grade level: P-2, Ages: 3-7
Violet Shrink, by Christine Baldacchino, and illustrated by Carmen Mok, is really a parents’ how-to manual masquerading as a children’s picture book, but not to worry, kids will appreciate it too.
Violet Shrink, by Christine Baldacchino, and illustrated by Carmen Mok, is really a parents’ how-to manual masquerading as a children’s picture book, but not to worry, kids will appreciate it too.
Violet Shrink lives with her dad Victor, and is happiest when she is alone. She likes nature, music and comic books. She doesn’t like celery in her soup, or parties. In fact, parties, whether her dad calls them bashes, shindigs, or get-togethers, are the worst.
Violet spends the entire time hiding under the kitchen table. She imagines she is a shark, smooth and silver, with a hundred sharp, white teeth. She swims in circles and loop-di-loops, hunting for sandwiches to eat.
Her ears don’t feel hot anymore because sharks don’t have ears that stick out the way hers do, and her palms aren’t sweating because sharks don’t have hands.
As the parent of a child with anxiety, Violet has some coping mechanisms that are familiar to me.
When her dad tells her the Shrink family reunion is coming up, Violet knows she has to do something, and both parents, and children, will learn an important lesson on when to speak up, and how to listen, when she does.
My anxious oldest, now seventeen, was shocked and horrified when she realized there was no such thing as “mom school,” and that I was just winging it. I wish I had had this book to read with her in first grade, when she was confronting the horror of the school cafeteria – it would have provided me with some important guidance on when to push her out of her comfort zone, and when to hold back and listen. Pretty neat trick for “just” a picture book!
Violet Shrink (Support an Independent Bookstore)
Violet Shrink (Hardcover at Amazon)*
More books for this Age Group can be found here.
My thanks to Groundwood Books for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.
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