OLIVIA WRAPPED IN VINES

Anxiety hinders a child.

Olivia, a peach-skinned kid with a brown bob cut, narrates in a direct first-person voice. She lists the things she possesses—a bicycle, red shoes adorned with stars, a soft plush lion, and “vines.” The thorny vines, wrapping around her body, are a metaphor for anxiety. They are brought on by being late, going to the dentist, talking with strangers, anticipatory fear of adults’ anger, and sometimes “NOTHING AT ALL!” Despite Olivia’s helpful teacher, the vines are exhausting and prevent Olivia from moving freely, doing math, and jumping off the diving board at the pool. Although the characters’ facial expressions are crystal clear, the text never decodes the vines as representing anxiety. The prose, including Olivia’s introduction about her bike, shoes, and stuffed animal, may prompt young readers to think that physical vines are causing Olivia’s stress. Forced textual playfulness in the teacher’s nicknames for the students (“my little monkey in flip-flops” and “my little chocolate frog”) is jarring and inorganic. The illustrations bring nothing special and, bizarrely, include the stuffed lion in a group of people Olivia imagines mocking her. Moreover, vine-wrapped Olivia’s self-chosen label as “a big, spiky ball that no one wants to be near” will sting readers who have anxiety. Reach for Anthony Browne’s What If…? (2014) and Patrick McDonnell’s A Perfectly Messed-Up Story (2014) instead.

Well-intentioned but indirect and clunky.