Pistes d'exploration

Notice Noni’s body language in the cover illustration. What other postures or actions might indicate nervousness?

Start a list of things that make Noni nervous. Add your own ideas.

After reading, browse the illustrations, noticing the use of colour. How do the colours help you understand the story? What colours are associated with being nervous, happy, sad or excited?

Noni’s parents give her lots of advice. Draw and write to share some strategies to help overcome nervousness.

Discuss the illustrations and how Noni feels. What elements in her body language reveal her feelings?

Sort out expressions from the text that you could use when you feel nervous. Make a class list. Practise using them through role play.

Identify the situations that are realistic and those which Noni only imagines.

Discuss how you deal with situations that make you nervous. What could Noni do to cope?

Wemberly Worried

Mots-clés

Picture book , anxiety , belonging , everyday life , fear , friendship , new school year , school life

Commentaire descriptif

You name it, Noni is worried about everything—play dates, opening her juice box by herself, global warming—but mostly she’s stressed about her first day of school. She bites her nails and twirls her hair. She “talks nonstop to calm her nerves.” But thanks to Briar, an outgoing girl she meets on the bus, Noni overcomes her fears and ends up actually liking school. Repetitive lines such as “Noni bites her nails. Noni twirls her hair” build tension into the narrative and concretely illustrate for readers the extent of the protagonist’s fear. Watercolour and crayon illustrations effectively capture the characters’ facial expressions: the apprehensive heroine, her worried parents, the carefree schoolyard children and the mean teacher of Noni’s imagination, with green skin and fangs. A black-and-white sequence provides a visual cue for readers when the story dips into memories of the past, with Noni recalling a time when “all was well with the world” and she wasn’t so panic-stricken. A tribute to the power of friendship and belonging, this read-aloud will allay some of the fears and anxieties associated with the first day of school or any other “first” experience.