Meesha Makes Friends
Tom Percival
Bloomsbury, 2020
32pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99
9781526612953
Meesha was skilled at craft work and loved using her imagination to make all sorts of things. But the one thing she could not make were friends. No matter how she tried, she never knew what to say, when to say it or what to do. So she stayed alone and lonely, until one day she took out her craft tools and made a whole lot of little friends. These were friends she could take with her everywhere, and even though they couldn’t play football or tennis or catch, she was comfortable with them.
One day her mother took her to a party and it wasn’t long before Meesha was alone again, so she started making her own kind of friends. And then she noticed someone watching her… Maybe she wasn’t as alone as she thought.
This is the fourth in this series for younger readers which includes Perfectly Norman, Ruby’s Worry, and Ravi’s Roar, each designed to help them navigate social situations that can feel overwhelming by sparking conversations about mental and emotional health, positive self-image, building self-confidence and managing feelings. Reading stories and talking to children about what they might encounter in certain situations before they arise is a sound way to provide them with a range of strategies they can draw on if they feel they are sinking under the weight of anxiety.
If we ask a child, or an adult for that matter, what is the most worrying thing they will be confronted with in a new situation, the most likely answer is that they will know no one or will not have any friends. So this book, particularly, deserves a place in that collection that addresses friendship, making friends and overcoming anxiety.