Does your child have lots of fears? Fears can be crippling especially to our young ones. It can be hard to help little ones overcome their fears or at least face them. Often we find work arounds like nightlights for kids who are afraid of the dark. Today we get to share a picture book about a young boy who has many fears and how he learns to face them. The book is Mikey and the Dragons by Jocko Willink and illustrated by Jon Bozak. It is recommended for ages 3 to 6.
From the Publisher:
From retired Navy Seal and #1 New York Times-bestselling author Jocko Willink comes a timeless tale about a young boy's wondrous journey of slaying dragons - and conquering his fear.Little Mikey is scared of everything. He's certain there are creepy crawlies hidden under the rug. He sleeps with his light on to keep the monsters at bay. He's scared of sharks and snakes even ladders and slides and it all makes him incredibly sad.
But when he stumbles upon an old book that tells the tale of a young boy prince that volunteers to protect his king-less kingdom from hordes of dragons, there's a chance Mikey might discover that his fears are not quite as big as they seem.
Relatable to anyone who has ever struggled with fear and anxiety, this picture book about conquering fear and tapping into the warrior within will have mass appeal.
From Me:
Mikey is a scared young boy. He is so scared of everything that he literally sits alone most of the time. After all who wants to play with someone who is too scared to do anything. Mikey finds a book one day about a prince and dragons. He is scared to look at the book since the pictures are intimidating, but he decides to brave it and see if it can help him overcome some of his fears. The story is about the prince becoming king and having to protect the kingdom from the dragons that live nearby. The prince is about Mikey's age. Mikey read about the late king's advice to his son and watches how the scared prince gathers all of his courage to go face the dragons. The prince and Mikey are surprised to see that all the fear was the buildup and when the prince saw the dragons he was no longer scared. They were small and rather cute. It is the perfect metaphor for how we make our fears bigger than they actually are in overthinking. The prince's story inspires Mikey to face some of his fears so he can begin really living his life.
I love how this book uses a fairy tale type of book to teach Mikey about facing his fears. The tale within the book is sad but also heartwarming. I love the use of dragons as this is the age where dragons are big. The dragon theme also makes this book perfect to read on Michaelmas. After all, Michaelmas is about fighting your inner dragons and for Mikey they were all of his fears. I can see this book easily becoming a favorite. It has the real life aspect as well as the fairy tale and dragons. It would be a fun book to discuss one's fears and help young children learn how to face them. We can help them learn it is ok to be afraid but even if we are afraid we need to move forward and not get stuck in one place.
To go with this book it would be fun to do a dragon craft! I shared a roundup of dragon crafts a bit ago here. I have also shared other dragon crafts, Michaelmas activities and dragon themed books here. Happy dragon fighting!
