Billy

Are you so sure that children's picture books are childish?

If you don't, be assured that Anthony Browne's books will be both entertaining and enlightening to readers of all ages. But don't just take it from me. See for yourself. Thumb through his books.

As for the latest story reading with my three-year-old daughter, I was fascinated by Anthony Browne's book Silly Billy. I won't waste much time on telling you how silly this little boy can be. He was a worrier. Billy worried about his shoes walking out of the window when he goes asleep. He soon started to worry about his bedroom flooded after heavy rain. Omigod! One misfortune (which isn't really real) after another (again, purely imaginative) haunted Billy. He became so worried that the world appeared to be smashed to smithereens.

Then at his grandma's home, for the hundredth time, for the thousandth time, Billy came up with one loathsomely picture after another, and he could not sleep at all. But - and this was the interesting part - his grandma made a creative change. She had a hunch that this little Billy needed someone to share his worry, and handed Billy six brightly coloured Guatemalan worry dolls. Yeah, Billy simply had to tell one worry to each doll, and place the dolls under his pillows. By next morning, the dolls will have taken Billy's worries away, as surely as dawn will follow dusk.

Billy's worry dolls helped him a lot. After he shrugged off the spasm of worry, he went back to sleep. So much so, in fact, he slept like a log with the six dolls. But when Billy let loose for a moment, a torrential outpouring of fear returned, worrying the hell out of him. What did Billy worry? He worried that the dolls will be overwhelmed by his worries.

He was worried, but not for long. How did Billy overcome his new worries? Go read Anthony Browne's Silly Billy.