Nothing Scares Us [Hardcover]

Frieda Wishinsky (Author), Neal Layton (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up

Best friends Lenny and Lucy each have a secret fear--Lucy is frightened by a TV monster, Lenny by spiders.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Together, Lucy and her best friend, Lenny, feel fierce. They invent games about pirates, snakes and aliens. But when Lenny watches a TV show about a three-eyed green monster, he doesn't notice the uneasy frown on Lucy's face. Later, Lucy imagines "the creature" outside her bedroom window and nervously pictures Lenny mocking her wimpy behavior ("What if he laughed?... Maybe she could say she was sick [to avoid the scary show]"). Lucy keeps a stoic silence until Lenny screams and recoils from a little spider, which she easily tosses out the nearest window. Wishinsky (Oonga Boonga) suggests that the friends regain their invincibility through teamwork; bad things happen only when one of them doesn't watch out for the other. Layton (Smile If You're Human) draws in a crayony scrawl and colors outside the lines. His childlike technique lets him enlarge important details, like the smiling brown spider that scares Lenny, and he conceives the TV monster as an amorphous, eight-armed blob. Wishinsky stresses togetherness and suggests that everyone has different fears, while Layton's na?ve style leaves the frightening material to the imagination. This book injects a hefty dose of humor into a common childhood anxiety. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2-This book deals with the sensitive topic of fears in a humorous and reassuring manner. Lucy and Lenny are inseparable and fearless-they chase aliens into the attic and toss alligators out of windows. All goes well until the day Lucy discovers she is afraid of a creature on a television show. It has a slimy green mouth and sucks up trains. She doesn't want Lenny to discover her secret, but she can't face watching the show again. Then she discovers that Lenny has a weakness, too-he is afraid of spiders. The story successfully illustrates that it is normal to have some fears, and that it's OK to share them with your friends. The cartoon-style illustrations are bright, colorful, and childlike. An entertaining addition that will appeal to both the brave and the timid alike.
Sheilah Kosco, Rapides Parish Library, Alexandria, LA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 24 pages
• Publisher: Carolrhoda Books (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575054906
• ISBN-13: 978-1575054902
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,824,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VALUABLE LESSON ON LIFE IS TAUGHT HERE., October 10, 2010

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nothing Scares Us (Paperback)

I rather like this book and when you read it to a group of little ones, the conversations it can create are endless.

Two kids, best friends, Lenny and Lucy fear nothing! Each day when they play they battle monsters, pirates, animals, snakes, and space aliens. They are not afraid of anything...no, nothing scares them!

Alas though, our brave little hero's are about to learn a very important lesson in live. Lucy finds that she is absolutely terrified of a certain monster they see on T.V. She is even more terrified though of what she feels Lenny will think of her if she admits to her fears! It is the old adage...nothing to fear but fear itself. How is she going to get out of this mess? How is she going to be able to tell her best friend Lenny and still hold his respect?

I hate to throw in a spoiler here, but will anyway. As the story progresses, Lucy finds that Lenny has his own unreasonable fears. The two friends compare their little hang-ups and all is well.

This is a wonderful lesson for children to learn. Fear is not bad and is something every human in the worlds is burdened with on one level or another. Some fear this; some fear that. IT is a normal human condition...always has been, always will. The author has approached this problem in a unique way and more than makes her point in a text that is very readable and easy to understand by the young.

This text is complimented by some very wild and imaginative illustrations by Neal Layton. The text and the illustration go together perfectly and are pleasing to both the eye and the ear. Both the author, Frieda Wishinsky and the illustrator know their jobs and between the two of them have written a rather valuable little book here.

This work is very suitable for those in pre-school though the second grade. We have also found this work to be quite effective with special needs kids who seem to relate to the subject and problem quite well.

This is certainly one that should be in a child's collection and most certainly should be on every school shelf.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

4.0 out of 5 stars NOTHING SCARES THEM--FOR LONG!, September 19, 2000

By 

Mary Ziller, Librarian - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nothing Scares Us (Hardcover)

Two inseparable friends pride themselves on their fearlessness as they banish monsters and pirates in imaginative play. When they discover the CREATURE feature on TV, one is delighted, but the other friend is so scared that she gets a stomach ache. However, she is even more scared that her friend will react negatively to her fears, so she suffers in silence--until she hears a scream. It is her friend, and she saves the day by rescuing him from a scary spider. He kindly returns the favor by turning off the TV when the dreaded CREATURE feature returns. They end up playing at being fearless again, having overcome their respective fears with their friend's help. Brightly illustrated, this book is appealing and shows children that different people have different fears, but they can be overcome or avoided.