Childrens Review: Unraveling Rose

Reader copy provided by Edelweiss+ in return for a review.



Unraveling Rose
Brian Wray
Illustrated by Shiloh Penfield

Rating: 4.7/5
Story: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5

Unraveling Rose is the sweet story of a stuffed bunny who likes everything just perfect who develops a loose thread. Eventually, that loose thread drives her to distraction and eventually to picking at it all the time, pulling out her own stuffing. She decides to make a change, restuffs herself and stitches it up, then through time and patience and practice, learns that not everything has to be perfect. The end of the book includes questions and answers about OCD and resources for parents and teachers.

Rose herself is utterly charming, sympathetic and adorable, as is the boy who snuggles her and reads books with her. The illustrations do an excellent job of portraying Rose's increasing distress over her loose thread and the relief afterwards of finally having a direction to go that may help.

I feel very strongly that more children's material needs to exist to address compassionate ways to recognized and approach mental illness. It's a very personal passion, since I lived most of my life with an anxiety disorder that went undiagnosed until my early 30s. Putting this kind of material into the hands of children, parents, and teachers is so important.

While I acknowledge the lack of material currently circulating, I had some concerns about this title. The author makes direct suggestions of what parents and teachers should do, rather than directing each question to an authority. The author, while very well-informed and certainly well-intentioned, makes it seem easy for a child to make the changes needed to accommodate OCD and anxiety; this is far from the truth. It takes a long time, proper medical and potentially pharmacological interventions and a lot of trial and error. The steps presented can alleviate problems, but will not fix the root of the compulsions and anxiety. Ideally, I would like more emphasis placed on discussing problems and compulsions with a trained professional rather than hinting to parents that they can handle this kind of thing on their own.