Almost Anything by Sophy Henn

I take huge delight in reading picture books like Almost Anything. The premise seems almost obvious. Has any other picture book author thought of this idea? Belief in special magic, shared by a wise elder, can give you the courage to try new things.

Little George the rabbit has huge doubts. He thinks he is a failure or he has fear of failure so he declines every invitation by his forest friends. No he won't try kite flying. He won't dance or roller skate. He is certain he cannot paint or even play a game of skittles. While everyone is busy with "this and that" George did nothing.

A wise old bear observes the scene. The bear takes a piece of paper and folds it:

"For you,' said Bear as she handed him a small paper hat. 'It's magic.' 
'Really?' asked George.
'Really,' said Bear. 'If you wear this hat, I'm quite sure you will be able to do almost anything, even roller skating."

George puts the hat on and tries roller skating but he is just too wobbly. Bear reassures George that he can ride those skates he just needs to give the magic a little more time to work. This is all the encouragement he needs. George preservers and after a little more practice he finds he can roller skate. This gives him the courage to try other things like dancing, painting, reading, knitting and even a game of chess. Keen eyes will notice something though. The hat is gone!  What will George do now? Can Bear step in and offer more gentle wisdom - of course she can.

This is the first time I have encountered Sophy Henn but I now discover she has an impressive body of work including board books and other titles for preschool children.  Take a look at this review where you can see inside this book.  Almost Anything has been short listed (see image below for all the shot listed titles) for Oscar's Book Prize (2019) which is a UK prize awarded to the best preschool book of the year. The winner for 2019 was How to be a Lion by Ed Vere. Click the title to see a video of the book and watch out for the word meandering - how wonderful to see this use of vocabulary in a book designed for the youngest readers. I am keen to check out more of these short listed titles.