There’s a T-Rex in My Tummy Book

Description

There’s a T-Rex in My Tummy is a delightful story aimed at helping children navigate feelings of stress and anxiety.

Originally written in 2021 to help my son navigate the feelings of anxiety he was experiencing during Covid-19 lockdowns in New Zealand, there’s a T-Rex in My Tummy was brought to life when my little man asked if we could turn his story into a “real book”.

There’s a T-Rex in My Tummy is aimed at children aged 3-8 years old, and includes a range of brightly coloured images that will appeal to children and parents alike. The story helps to normalise the anxious feelings that children sometimes experience, and to provide them with some strategies to help cope with those big feelings.

We have had some great feedback on our book from teachers, parents and independent book reviewers. Here is some of the feedback we have had so far:

• “Just to let you know. Books arrived this afternoon. Thank you! Very impressed with the book, you did an amazing job. It’s so well written and easy for kids to understand” (Happy customer)
• “My 5 year old son loved reading your book! He loved the rhyming and found the pictures very cool! I love how relevant the message of the book is, not only to kids but to adults as well. I hope he uses the tips you’ve suggested as he continues with his journey at school and in his life. Thank you for your beautiful book” (Feedback from local library user)
• “As someone who often feels anxious and wonders how people feel after I leave a room, I found this story to be a wonderful representation of the sensations and thought processes behind those emotions. Paired with fun, hand-drawn-like illustrations, this story is a good way to approach the topic of anxiety and teach young children how to deal with those big feelings. There was just the right amount of words on each page and the rhyming didn’t feel forced or odd; I found myself really getting into the story while I was reading it. Having different and diverse main characters on every page was a great choice because almost any child can pick up this story and see themselves reflected back. I find that a lot of children’s books at the moment are very heavy-handed on the ‘message’ they are trying to get across but this one hits the mark—it falls into the category of obvious but not overwhelming—and I really enjoyed it.” – The Sapling (Book Review)
• Thank you for writing such a lovely book. It has useful, practical and very easy ideas for how kids (of all ages) can deal with anxiety and stress. Ka pai to mahi! It’s in my Helpful Books playlist, too. xox – Suzy Cato (Children’s author and entertainer)

Our goal is to get our story out to as many little people as possible, and along the way we are raising funds to help kiwi kids to access mental health appointments to help those kids who need a little bit of extra support. Metal health care is super expensive, so we want to try and raise $1m to help as many kids as possible to get care. $1 from every book sold will be donated to help us to achieve this goal.

There’s a T-Rex in My Tummy is available in softcover format.

Written, illustrated and printed in New Zealand.