Author & Illustrators
This is a thought-provoking story about school friendships, bullying and the transition to secondary school.
The story follows the trials and tribulations of Sam in Year 6, who overhears his friends Fin, Cal and Jay saying that they won’t be putting his name on their ‘friends list’ for the Year 7 tutor group in their new secondary school.
When Fin, Cal, Jay and their families go to Barcelona without him during half-term, Sam strikes up a rather one-sided friendship with Zak Monroe – a new boy in the year group who has already been dubbed ‘weird’ by his peers. As Sam increasingly tries to disassociate himself from anything and anyone that his old friends make fun of, he realises that he is trying to change to please them and that there are more important issues at stake.
There are many different threads to this story that children struggling with change and friendships might empathise with. Transition to a new school is a big part, but also self-belief, resilience, anxieties, acceptance of differences and challenging stereotypes.
The book ‘Worrybot’ explores anxiety and school-based avoidance. The story follows Josh as he moves to Brighton. We see Josh as he starts a new school and get to experience the worries, thoughts and feelings he has about this. The story then centres around the friendship of Josh and Charlie. Charlie is a ‘robot’ and the person behind this helps Josh to deal with his emotions and anxieties. As the friends start to experience more of school life, we get to see how they support each other, pushing each other to get involved with things they might not have done before. The story is gripping and leads you to want to know why Charlie isn’t in school, something you find out at the end of the story. The characters are easy to relate to and would provide comfort to children going through change within their own lives.
This book would be most suited to UKS2 and would really resonate with pupils who are having worries of their own. Worrybot would help reassure children that they are not alone, and it is natural to feel worried. It would also help pupils to build a personal toolkit of ways to deal with anxiety. This story would be beneficial for Year 6 students who are dealing with a lot of change moving to secondary school. I especially liked that at the end of the book, there is a section of breathing techniques to help with anxiety and a page of helpful resources for children’s mental health. School staff would find this book useful to use with children who are feeling similar ways, it could also be linked to PSHE topics and could be read as a class story.
Archie Ebbs has the perfect life. Good friends, a nice home and classmates who laugh at (nearly) all his jokes. But all that is about to change. As his family faces upheaval, Archie realises he will have to leave behind so much that he knows and loves, even his cat, Dinger. And soon Archie has other worries … is he really starting to become invisible?
review
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
Curriculum links (if relevant)
Curriculum links (if relevant)
Any other comments
Any other comments