Freya's Funny Feeling

Samia Quddus
Rahima Begum (Illustration)
Paperback, 40 pages
9781527218840
4-7 years

Freya’s Funny Feeling tells the story of a little girl who notices a funny feeling in her tummy, coming and going during different situations. Despite her attempts to make the funny feeling go away, she eventually speaks to her parents who tell her the funny feeling may have something to do with stirred-up emotions... which feel like butterflies in her tummy. 

Inspired by conversations with children who have found the idea of butterflies in their tummy a baffling concept, Freya's Funny Feeling recognises and acknowledges uneasy feelings experienced in various social situations.
 

Using the analogy of the butterfly cycle, the story cleverly draws an association between Freya's anxious and sometimes excitable feelings and the 'butterflies in your tummy ' idiom helping young readers to visualise the two concepts simultaneously.
 

Catchy language through the use of alliteration and simple rhyming patterns makes Freya's Funny Feeling a pleasurable story to read. Visually there are many different communities represented across the book so children of many walks of life and cultural backgrounds can identify with the characters.

Samia Quddus has taught as a primary school teacher for over 14 years and is a Specialist practitioner in the area of Social, Emotional and Mental Health. She is a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP) and practices as an integrative child and adolescent counsellor/ therapist having completed postgraduate diploma training with the nations leading children's mental health charity, Place2Be.