I'm Scared

Elizabeth Crary's 'Dealing with Feelings' series takes a smart approach to childhood emotion: instead of telling children what to feel, it puts them in the driver's seat. In this 1994 entry, Tracy is terrified of her new neighbour's dog, and young readers are offered multiple choices about how she might respond — with the consequences of each shown clearly. School counsellors and therapists have used it for decades precisely because the interactive format opens real conversations rather than closing them with a lesson. It's brief, which means it functions more as a discussion prompt than a full story. But for a parent navigating a child's fears, or a counsellor looking for a concrete clinical tool, this is a well-designed resource that genuinely works.