The Best Books About Anxiety For Kids: An Age-by-Age Guide

Bright colors and bold lines make understanding worries kid-friendly in this book, which is meant to let them understand that we all worry sometimes. Children will be reassured that even if they are feeling pressures, there are solutions on the road to feeling safe, with fun along the way.

Through storytelling and impressive art work, the author tells the tale of Wemberly the mouse who worries, most notably about the first day of school. Luckily, a teacher introduces Wemberly to a fellow worrywart, and the two soon learn how much fun it can be to learn at school, and spend less time feeling anxious.

This kid-friendly entry point to the topic of mental health and emotions is about Ruby, an otherwise happy and imaginative young girl, who encounters Worry for the first time. It’s not until she befriends a boy to discover that everyone deals with worries, and that she can get rid of them!

This empathetic exploration of what happens when a young immigrant girl finds herself in a new country and school is a heart-warming story of how to manage fear so it’s small enough to fit into your pocket!

Worry is represented as tangible scribbles in this metaphorical story about how Maya journeys to find Courage, represented by sparkles, through calming belly breathing. This read will teach children that even though Worry isn’t completely gone for good, it can be overcome.

Children and parents are guided through cognitive behavioral based techniques in this interactive book to help better understand anxiety. This self-help pick is an excellent resource, complete with how-to steps, writing and drawing prompts, and a note to parents by psychologist and author Dawn Huebner, PhD.

From AmericanGirl comes this worry-focused installment in their Smart Girl’s Guide. With tips and tricks on overcoming fear and taking charge of your worries, young readers will learn proven techniques for handling their anxiety to help them become the most confident version of themselves! This book is also filled with quizzes, activities, and personal stories from real girls.

Worry and anxiety can go from zero to 100 very quickly, making it all the more overwhelming to handle. This pick teaches pre-teens the specific skills which they can use to face worries and fears through proven techniques with an emphasis on shifting their mindset from feeling worried to having better self-esteem.

Raina worries that she’ll throw up after a bad stomach flu, but her worry soon extends to other areas of her life. She begins to wonder whether something else is wrong with her, and her parents connect her with a therapist who helps her confront her fears and handle the intersection of mental health, social anxiety, and her newly-diagnosed Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This graphic memoir about the author’s own personal experience serves as a compassionate and hilarious reminder that counseling and therapy can be valuable tools to overcome your anxiety.

This book offers teens cognitive behavioral strategies to handle anxiety, leaving them feeling more empowered and confident. Written by two licensed psychologists who specialize in anxiety disorder, teens will learn the best practices to manage stress, decide if medication could be right for them, manage stress, and more.

Teens today have a lot on their plate, and it can be overwhelming to juggle it all. This book will show teens cognitive therapy-based skills and techniques rooted in mindfulness to assist them with learning how to end anxiety, and help reverse negative thought patterns. Readers can enjoy quizzes, self-assessments, effective exercises, and practical strategies which will assist in handling a range of emotions.

Based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), teens will be able to identify the source of their anxiety, and determine how to best take proper control. This book, designed to help you identify your "monkey mind,” AKA the primitive part of the brain where anxious thoughts arise,  is filled with cartoon illustrations that are simple yet powerful, and teach strategies for handling even the most difficult of situations.

One of the bestsellers on the subject for over thirty years, this workbook by Edmund J. Bourne is packed with skills to assess and treat anxiety, aimed to help readers of all ages develop the skills to take charge of their life. The latest sixth edition includes step-by-step plans for treating panic disorders, agoraphobia,obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), worry, and fear.