Everyone is scared of something. Living with fear can make even the bravest person feel small but Emily Gravett’s, or is it Little Mouse’s Bog Book of Fears, is the essential guide for helping you overcome your phobias.

The reader is told, should they take the time to read the small print, that this book has been put together by an expert in worrying. This expert has used a lifetime experience of managing fears through doodles to present the reader with their very own opportunity to overcome fears through the medium of art. Every page in the book has a large blank space that the reader can use to record and face their fear. They can draw, write or even make a collage, but whatever they may choose they are reminded that ‘a fear faced is a fear defeated’.

This highly original and imaginative picture book will introduce the reader to a world of phobias and fears, all of which it seems can be overcome. But what is it that Little Mouse fears the most? Is it spiders? What’s under the bed? The sharp knives of the farmers wife? All these fears and more are faced by Little Mouse and the reader, as they move through the book. In fact so scared has little mouse been that he has gnaws holes in almost every page. Yet he has been very helpful and provided the reader with the technical term for each of his fears and lots of pictures to show his fear in more detail. the very clever twist at the end of the tale (pardon the pun) is fabulous and the many references to fairy tale and nursery rhyme should not be missed.

This is a very intelligent and sublet story. It is amusing yet at the same time conveys a very important message. The artwork is absolutely stunning and the level of detail beyond compare. From snippets of imaginary newspaper cuttings to a fold-out map of the ‘Isle of Fright’ nothing has been forgotten and the interactive nature of the book will have children engrossed for hours, marvelling at every page. There is a considerable amount to take in from this story, not only in the text but in the very detail of every page. It is clearly a work of love and deserves to be treated well, read over and again and treasured for many years. Whether it will cure phobias through its light-hearted approach depends upon the child but it will certainly educate and it deserves a place in every child’s personal book collection. Emily Gravett is certainly an author/illustrator with a huge amount of talent whose career deserves to be followed and supported.