A very worried little snowy owl looks out from the cover of this exceptional picture book. In wonderfully expressive photographs and short bursts of text, we learn a lot about anxiety - how it affects us and what we can do about it. This is serious anxiety, some of it bordering on depression, and the descriptions of physical effects are harrowing: 'You may get dizzy and sweaty, and have headaches...hands and feet can tingle and go numb...It's like being filled with a scream.' 'Everyday jobs like combing hair, changing clothes or making decisions, are too much to think about.' Not sleeping, feeling foggy or panicky, not being able to cope with ordinary tasks - all of these are talked about in simple terms with amazing photos of birds illustrating the problems involved. The photos are by many different photographers and are quite, quite remarkable. At the end of the book we learn that facing up to our worries is the only way to stop having them. To realise that once we have done whatever it is we are afraid to do, the worry becomes very much less. This is a book that could be used by anyone from about 9 upwards (adults as well) and will provide humour as well as serious content. The birds may or may not be anxious, but the photographers' art seems to prove that they are, and it is somehow comforting to know that other creatures may suffer the same kinds of worries that we do. Available from Amazon, from good book shops, and from the publisher, www.jkp.com.