Scaredy Squirrel

A squirrel that is afraid of the unknown, therefore, has a whole itinerary for its day. Until one day, everything goes wrong and it is forced to get to know its surroundings and, consequently, to lose its fear. (Translated from Spanish)

Scaredy squirrel has a nice nut tree in which are all the things he needs to live a nice enough life. So he does not leave his tree. Because bad things might be happening out in the unknown. Then one day something happens to upset his routine, and maaaaybe he finds out that things will probably be okay even if he leaves his tree. A fun picture book that would be a good way to start a conversation about anxiety and/or worry with kids. And listen, scaredy squirrel is my kind of squirrel. I may be adopting him as my patronus.

A cute story with good lessons about being brave and enjoying the world.

I love this! So many children have big fears and if they just let go they can find their "secret power" of being able to soar!

Scaredy is an paranoid squirrel who has a fear of the unknown and many phobias. He sits in his nut tree day after day doing the same thing. Just in case something scary shows up, he has a emergency kit, agenda, and plan for everything. However, one day things do not go as planned, and this results in panic, a surprise, momentary death, and eventually an adjustment to regularly scheduled events.

This clever children's book peeks into the hearts of the fearful with a likeable control freak of a squirrel. Awfulizing every event seems to be the obsessive compulsive behavior compelling the squirrel to plan a guestless birthday party for himself. Fortunately Scaredy has friends whose deep love for him enable them to overcome his short comings like playing dead for two hours when something scares him. The story allows children to understand and laugh at fears and maybe to overcome some of them.

This book is irreverent, funny, and relatable for young readers. The main character is afraid of almost everything and sequesters himself in his trees, but this makes for a very boring life. Eventually, he makes a brave leap from his tree and discovers that he can glide- a flying squirrel!

I gave this book 4 stars. I read this to my 2nd grade class the first week of school. They just loved it. We talked about how the squirrel was scared of the unknown. Then we talked about how things are always scary until they are not. Great book! Kids really love it.

I purchased these books for my son when he was 6. He was afraid of everything! He was most afraid of anything new, that he had never tried before. While there are positives to wanting to observe and analyze particular situations, he was so worried all the time. We both really connected with the adorable character Scaredy Squirrel. This is a light-hearted story that illustrates the world of the "Nervous Nellies" and opens the door for discussion between child and adult. These stories are fun to listen to, and fun to read! I also love the design and layout of the text and pictures.

This book is so cute! It starts out describing Scaredy Squirrel and his plan for if anything goes wrong. He has an emergency kit and never leaves his nut tree. One day, he is forced to leave his tree and discovers that he can fly, and that they world outside his tree is not scary anymore. He overcomes his fear and ventures out of his tree much more often. This book encourages children to be courageous and try new things. I like this book because as a child, I was often scared to try new things, but this book shows that new things are not always bad. The illustrations are comical and help young readers know what the book is talking about when it discusses words like "emergency kit."

Scaredy Squirrel is about a squirrel who is too afraid to change his daily routine because he has many fears. But one day he drops his safety kit and accidetnly jumps after it, only to realize that he is a flying squirrel and its okay to do things he has not done before. The illustrations in the book are cute and match the story well. It shows kids that its okay to go outside the dotted line sometimes to discover who they really are. A must read!

In my opinion this is a wonderful book to read to young children. The main character in the story begins by telling us all of his fears and how he avoids them, but throughout the story he eventually has to face his fears and he then realizes that they aren't so scary after all. Therefore, this main character is very well-developed since we watch as he goes from a "Scaredy Squirrel" to a quite brave squirrel! The illustrations helped to show the reader how frightened the squirrel initially was. On the first page before the story had even started, there was a "warning" urging readers to wash their hands before continuing. Germs were one of the Scared Squirrels fears. This helped to show the read how truly scared he was. As the plot develops throughout the story, we see the squirrel fall out of his safe tree and then realize that none of his fears were happening, like he predicted. This well organized and sequential story line takes the reader along a journey as a squirrel slowly overcomes his fears, all by himself. The conflict of the squirrel falling out of the tree is what the squirrel always feared, but his fears were proven to be irrational when he was on the ground, no longer in the tree, and still alive and healthy. The big idea represented in this story is that it is okay to have fears, but we should not limit our lives because of them.

In my opinion this was a great book to read to young children. This book represents a squirrel who is afraid of the unknown because they don't know what is out there. I think this book teaches students a great lesson about stepping out of their comfort zones in order to find out what else there is out there in our world. I thought that the illustrations were very detailed and funny which would keep the readers interesting throughout the story. I also really liked the font that the author used because it wasn't typical, it was fun. I would recommend teachers to read this to young readers around 2nd grade to show them it is alright to be themselves and step out of their comfort zone to explore new things that are around them.

I liked this book a lot. It featured a Squirrel with a number of various anxieties and fears, many of which children would be, and I was personally able to identify with. His fears are often more exaggerated than mine, and that typical people's are, but they have a legitimate connection to peoples lives; including my own. Scaredy Squirrel would rather stay in his tree all day every day, and avoid taking any risks. I agree that taking a risk can be scary, but sometimes it is necessary, and often it doesn't turn out as badly as one might think. Scaredy believed that he absolutely needed an emergency kit to respond to situations and be able to take care of himself. When it accidentally fell out of the tree, he dove after it without thinking. He immediately regretted his decision; up until he discoved that he was a flying squirrel and was able to safely glide around. Another reason I liked this book was because of its relatively unique style; The author tells the story largely though a series of "goofy" diagrams, which are easy to follow and understand, but not necessarily in the typical fashion of most books. The main message of this story is that fear should not dictate your life, and that even things that you "know" will be bad aren't destined to turn out as bad as you think, and they frequently don't.

Reading Level Grades K-3

Adorable, and fun to learn how not to be afraid of outside. It is organized, adventurous,a fun!

I did and did not like this book for two reasons. One reason I liked this book was for the way it was written. I really liked how it was not written like a typical story. There were charts and diagrams that went a long with the story that described his daily life. I also liked how there were captions pointing to the picture that further explained parts of the story. I thought that this made the book fun to read. One reason I did not like this book was because of the plot. I didn't really understand the events of the story. I thought that the story was very short and it could have had more. Overall, I think that the message of this story is to be brave and do things that you may be afraid to do otherwise.

This book explains the predictable day in the life of a scared to death squirrel. Everything is the same daily, except an unexpected guest makes an appearance. The squirrel's plans are changed and his routine is changed. I loved the illustrations in the book.

This was absolutely adorable, and I as a parent connected a lot with this writers style and humor. My daughter and I wonder what will be next these humorous books. Very wordy and entertaining, filled with list making and many puns.

The story of a squirrel who is scared of everything and accidentally is put in a situation where he has no choice but to face the world and his fears. He learns something rewarding about himself in the process. Great book for early elementary/pre-k classroom.

Scaredy Squirrel is a story of squirrel who decides to spend his entire life in his tree, where he is safe from the unknown. When the unexpected happens, Scaredy Squirrel goes into panic mode, until he realizes that maybe the unknown isn't so bad after all.

clever and quirky tale of a squirrel who learns to conquer his fears.

This was a great book! It was entertaining and easy to read. The story was very funny and had a really good message. The book was easy to read because it was told as a story about a squirrel’s day. In the book it gave a schedule of what the squirrel does and how he is prepared to survive if he falls out of his tree. The book had lots of lists and illustrations to keep the reader’s attention. The story was lighthearted but had a good message. The main message of this story was that if you take a flying leap into the unknown every now and then you many learn something new about yourself.

We loved this book, Jen loved the little pictures and looked at every detail, we went back and forth so she could understand what was going on.

Hilarious.

I really like this book. The main idea is that it is OK to be scared of things. I like this book because of its organization. For example, many of its pages are laid out like a graphic organizer, which makes it more fun to read, and allows for many more illustrations. I also like this book because of the character. Scaredy Squirrel has a lot of the same fears that many children have (germs, sharks, mosquitoes, etc.). Even though some of them are silly, they're still relative to children's lives, as many children are afraid of things.I like that Scaredy Squirrel is a squirrel, so anyone can relate to him and his fears. He isn't a defined culture or race or identity, so it allows the reader to picture their selves as him or connect their fears to his.

The unknown can be a scary place for a squirrel," but the hero of Mélanie Watt's hilarious Scaredy Squirrel thinks he has it all under control. Unwilling to risk running into: green Martians, killer bees, tarantulas, poison ivy, germs, or sharks, he never leaves his tree, keeping to the same schedule every day. In the unlikely event that he is forced to evacuate, he has a contingency plan that is full-proof. Or is it...?

With engaging text and simple but appealing charcoal and acrylic illustrations, this little picture-book offers a humorous depiction of the coping strategies that timid young creatures (squirrel or otherwise) might use when faced with the unknown and unexpected. The dénouement - in which Scaredy Squirrel finally does leave his tree - captures the idea that while new experiences can broaden our horizons, they rarely change who we are at heart. An excellent beginning to Watt's series - I look forward to the next one!

Scaredy Squirrel is a children's book that tells about a squirrel that is scared of going outside of his home, a nut tree. The places outside of the nut-house is called "the unknown." He is afraid of green Martians, killer bees, tarantulas, poison ivy, germs, and sharks- basically things most people are afraid of.
But he is always prepared when things might go wrong, he has a daily schedule, and he has a first-aid-kit just in case.
This book about a paranoid squirrel is a good children's book, has cute illustrations, and a good storyline.

I enjoyed this book a lot. The illustrations brought this silly story to life. Scaredy Squirrel is a squirrel with a very active imagination. It is so active that he has trouble sleeping at night for fear of mysterious monsters. He devises a series of booby traps to keep the monsters away and realizes that they were all in his head. This would be a great book for children that have similar nighttime fears.

Really cute!! A squirrel is afraid of what is beyond is nut tree home. He doesn't want to leave for fear of sharks, poison ivy, killer bees, etc. He soon finds that nothing too bad will happen if he leaves his tree. The pictures are really cute, bright, and colorful. This is perfect for those kids who are a bit scared of trying new things. The story helps the kids realize that baby steps are okay. This is s great book.

Summary:
Scaredy Squirrel is too scared to leave his nut tree. He stays in his nut tree all day because it's a familiar and safe place to him, but one day he decided to adventure out. He created an emergency survival kit incase something happened. He adventured out and his emergency kit didn't work the way he planned. His kit fell from an unknown nut tree and as Scaredy Squirrel tried to catch it he realized that he wasn't just an ordinary squirrel, but a flying squirrel!

Personal Reaction:
I love that this story shows that is you never try to overcome your fears, then you may be missing out on something that you didn't know you could do. I enjoyed this story because I was once like a "Scaredy Squirrel". I have found out a lot about me that I didn't know I could do until I adventured out and had plans go wrong, like he did with his emergency kit.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. In the classroom, the teacher could have her students make their own emergency survival kit with stuff they would take to an "unknown" place.
2. In the classroom, the teacher could have her students share stories about stuff that they are scared of and what they could do to change their fear.