“Shy Charles” by Rosemary Wells, 2001. Puffin. Picture Book. Ages 4-8.
In her toddler and preschooler years, Joy was a very shy child. She did not want to participate in the singing during playgroup sessions, not to mention play Sunday School sing-alongs. I let her be, because I had been a shy child myself, and I understood what she needed- space and time. In new situations, say at parties or friends’ houses, she’d be very quiet and look at the surroundings and stick to me all the time.
“ Joy the koala,” piped the librarian when she saw how Joy kept clinging to my pants.
“ Well, she’s fine.” I said clumsily.
“ What are you going to do about this problem?” asked one mother at the playgroup we joined.
“ What problem?” I asked.
“Joy is too shy. It’s scary. I don’t know what she’s thinking.”
At that point, all kinds of rude thoughts came to mind. Thoughts like, ‘if you find a shy child scary then you’re the one with the problem’, and ‘what a specimen you are.’
Most people I have met see shyness as a problem, a deficiency to be overcome. But I think that lies in faulty thinking on their part. Being shy is different from being withdrawn, where the child feels terrified of social contact.
“You’ve got to push her a little,” relatives cautioned.
But I didn’t. Today, at 6, she’s confident and loves playing with her friends. She is still shy- that’s how she is. But being shy does not mean that she is weak, afraid or cowardly. She just needs time to process new situations. In fact, she has excellent observation skills and poses reflective questions from time to time about things she sees and experiences.
Back to the book. “Shy Charles” by Rosemary Wells, is about this very shy young mouse. His parents try to ‘cure’ him by signing him up for (believe it or not) ballet and then football. He fails on both counts. So his parents take him home. Mom and Dad go out for the evening and leave him home with the babysitter. Charles has a gala time playing in his room, when suddenly he hears a loud sound. He rushes down and sees that the babysitter has fallen down the stairs. Shy Charles rises to the occasion and his parents discover that one can be shy and very, very brave at the same time.
The drawings are funny and depict the parents’ exasperation to the tee. The pictures of Charles clinging on to his mother’s skirts are so very familiar.
I would recommend this book to be read aloud together with your children, especially if they have been getting a lot of flack for being shy.
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