There are many things in life that cannot be controlled. In fact, we cannot decide much of what happens to us. But what we can decide is how we react to what happens to us. That is where the Bubble and Slug Choose Your Own Attitude books can help. Learning which thoughts lead to good outcomes is powerful, but it starts by learning that we do get to choose those thoughts.

Anxious guides readers through some examples of times when readers may deal with anxiety and show just how Bubble and Slug guide each protagonist through their dilemmas. Each scenario asks the reader to choose between Bubble and Slug and ultimately determine how each story ends. Using techniques author Gail Hayes has developed through her work as a counselor, Anxious gives the reader a chance to explore the choices we make daily and learn about their impact. 

Learning which thoughts and actions lead to happier feelings helps us understand that we can choose our own attitude. Understanding that power to choose is a gift. In Anxious, these choices are contrasted between Bubble Thinking and Slug Thinking. Readers are encouraged to see that Bubble Thinking offers a self-driven approach to happier living.

Gail Hayes has a master’s degree in counseling psychology and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and child studies. She has been working with youth her whole career including over fifteen years in private practice. Choose Your Own Attitude is a series of books that she hopes will help address issues and feelings frequently encountered in her practice. Gail focuses primarily on a cognitive behavioral approach to therapy and many of the techniques implemented by Bubble are the same techniques her clients have found most useful over the years. She hopes to inspire Bubble Thinking as a self-driven approach to the challenges in children’s lives.

Helen Flook was born and currently lives in Wales. She studied art at Norwich School of Art and obtained a BA Hons in graphic design. After graduating, she spent ten enjoyable years in archaeology in the UK, France, and Germany and then two years managing an information center in North Wales for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. She then moved to Canada with her family and lived in Ontario for ten years building her career as an illustrator. She has since moved back to the UK and has had two of her own books published and has illustrated  books by well known authors like Ian Rankin, Terry Deary and Rachel Billington. She takes pride in illustrating a number of books for Welsh speaking children about Welsh culture. One book ‘Welsh Cakes and Custard’ won the Tir na Nog prize for the best Welsh children’s book in 2014. Helen has been influenced by famous illustrators mainly working in pen and ink like E H Shepard, Quentin Blake, Ralph Steadman and Ronald Searle.

"Anxiety in children has been rising in recent years and this title gives kids examples and concrete ideas on how to deal with it... Written by a counselor this has plenty of concrete advice. This might be a useful tool to help lead class discussions, and would be valuable in a counselors office, but is reader friendly enough that a kid might pick it up on their own."

—Puget Sound Council for Reviewing Children's and Young Adult Literature