This Girl Can Be a Bit Shy

In this beautiful book we meet Ruby who is sometimes brave, bouncy and chatty, but also sometimes quiet and shy. This Girl Can Be a Bit Shy explores the feelings of Ruby in a creative way as she navigates life with her supportive family, friends and pet dog. The text conveys Ruby's feelings and the interactions she has along the way so well with larger text, speech bubbles and different font styles. The illustrations invite the reader into Ruby's world and have so much more detail about the emotions Ruby is going through.

This book is a wonderful book to use in PSHE work and empathy work, too. This book was shared with Year 2 who were able to talk about Ruby's feelings and her relationships and also their own feelings and what they could do when they also feel shy, too. A book to use over and over again. Wonderful!

Picture book / Reviewed by Maria, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 5+

Meet Ruby. Some days she is brave, bouncy and chat-chat-chatty. Other days, she is not - and that's OK! She knows what she wants, and she does things her own way.

Celebrate the power of listening to your emotions and speaking up with this wonderful picture book. Hazel Quintanilla's retro style illustrations, using a limited pallet add humour and detail to the carefully written simple text. Ruby's character will appeal to children as it is relatable for them.

This text has the capacity to demonstrate to boys and girls alike that they are not alone in what they are feeling and the whole spectrum of emotions are ok. It reinforces the importance of boundaries and will allow discussions to be started about how different emotions impact the people around them.

This is such a powerful message and will be useful for those delivering Emotional Literacy, whole class story time, PSHME sessions (Personal Social Health Moral Education) and family discussions at home. A well written picture book which brilliantly adds humour to a difficult topic.

Picture book / Reviewed by Amanda Shipton, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 3+