• Encyclopedia of the jitters
With a pavement like this, we are almost sure to get around the question. This twelve-chapter encyclopedia of scare sets out to explain to everyone, brave or anxious, how fear works. What does it produce in our body? Are there people who never experience it? How does fear evolve according to the times and countries? We learn to distinguish nervousness from anxiety, fear from terror, panic from phobia. Even if some texts leave a little to be desired, even if it is sometimes a bit of a catch-all, the concept is quite funny (and exhaustive). And an entire chapter is devoted to nightmares, the alpha and omega of children’s fear, yet essential to our mental health. To read hidden under the duvet, just in case.
Who is afraid of fear?, by Milada Rezkova, Lukas Urbanek and Jakub Kase, translated from Czech by Eurydice Antolin (ed. Helvetiq, 190 pages, 24.90 euros). From 8 years old.
• To stop blushing
“Don’t blush, I’m not going to eat you!” »: Have we ever heard a more useless sentence? First, because you can’t help but blush, that’s precisely the problem. Then, because there is no question of being afraid of being eaten by anyone. The narrator of this book knows it well, and gets annoyed at being so infantilized. But she can prepare herself, reason with herself, nothing helps: she is always overtaken by her shyness. This ball here takes the form of a black bug, a sort of ball of hair that jumps around the neck of the little girl as soon as she has to speak in class or in front of friends. We regret that the resolution of his problem has been rushed – it would take a lot of willpower and a little self-confidence to tame his shyness. But children who are fed up with blushing when spoken to will find some comfort in this mirror.
My shyness, by Séverine Vidal and Marie Leghima (ed. Milan, 40 pages, 12.90 euros). From 5 years old.
• The big jump
To all those traumatized by swimming lessons in a school environment (“Catch the pole! Jump, everyone is waiting!”), This album offers another horizon. Little Jabari goes to the swimming pool with his father and sister. Today, it’s decided, he will jump off the diving board. Only here, it’s high. The delicacy of this book lies in the dialogues between Jabari and his dad, who accompanies him without ever pushing him. “Maybe you can take a little rest”, he suggests to her when his son is suddenly tired as he climbs the ladder. He gives her his little secrets to fight against fear. But he is not the instigator of the jump, he lets him make his choices. And that’s what makes this moment so special: When Jabari dives, it is to him, and to him alone, that he owes this feat. His pride can therefore be total.
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