We are into baseball tryout season and competitive synchronized skating season and So Long, Stress by Helaine Becker couldn’t have come at a better time!

Helaine Becker has created a guide not only for middle grade readers, but also for young adults and their adults. I learned many new and helpful tips to manage stress and bust out of anxious slumps. 

The magic of a book written for children is the simplicity of the information. I really dislike self help books. I hated parenting books and books about improving your health, diet, etc. I just cannot make it through the subject matter. It always feels pretentious and judgy. So Long, Stress by Helaine Becker is magic. The simplicity of the writing and the easy to understand and try tips and tricks to stress busting is genius! Helaine Becker has created an important resource for readers and Scholastic Canada has launched it at the perfect time, back to school. 

Back to school is a stressful time, not only for students heading back to class but for their adults as well. Time seems to accelerate at a new speed after the calm and slowed pace of the summer. It’s the return to school and afterschool activities. For some, the return to sports teams or even try outs. Helaine Becker lays out her book in five parts. I love that readers are first introduced to the science of stress, how it works and how it feels. She moves on to describing some excellent tips and habits to try and incorporate to reduce your stress levels. Next she move on to tackling emotions and tricky situations, when your body is starting to feel anxious and stressed. Last, she includes vital information about how you can get help if the feelings are too big to tackle on your own.

The book is written in a large bold typeface so it feels easy to read and understand. It’s not overwhelming in the slightest and there are really fun illustrations by Joanna Sevilla throughout the information to add a little touch of fun. Each tip, habit or idea has its own page so readers can skip through and find the ones that they think will work the best for them, without getting bogged down in too many ideas. It’s an amazing resource not just for middle grade readers but also teens, young adults and adults.

So Long, Stress is an important book to have available in classrooms and school libraries and would make the perfect back to school gift for any one in your life.