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Mr. Men #32

by Roger Hargreaves

Mr. Worry worries about everything. He even worries about worrying! The helpful wizard of Mr. Men Land wants to relieve him of his worries, but is there any way to make sure Mr. Worry won't worry?

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Fiction, Humor, Middle Grade, Fantasy, British Literature

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Roger Hargreaves was a British cartoonist, illustrator and writer of children's books. He created the Mr. Men series, Little Miss series and Timbuctoo series, intended for young readers. The simple and humorous stories, with bold, brightly coloured illustrations, have sales of more than 85 million copies worldwide in 20 languages.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Worry worries about everything. Are you Surprised? He is consumed with worry to the point he can’t sleep or relate to people. The wizard shows back up in this story. He has Mr. Worry write down all his worries on a piece of paper (which is a good practice) and then tells him that none of those worries can happen. Mr Worry sleeps very well for an entire week. Then he worries about having nothing to worry about. Habits do die hard.

Mr. Bump, Mr. Noisy and Mr. Greedy make an appearance in this story. I didn’t think this was the best Mr Men, but if you worry a lot as a kid, I’m sure you could relate to it.

The Nephew thought this book was grand and he gave it 5 stars. He didn’t use the word grand, but he loved it. He is in a Ghostbusters phase, but once I got him to sit down and read the book, he was into it.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Mr Men title actually felt quite ahead of the curve with it's depiction of anxieties - I certainly don't recall mental health being talked about so openly when I'd first read this one as a kid back in the 80's.

Mr. Worry agonises over every little detail and in most instances he has a valid point, especially when it comes to over spending on food shopping.

We also see his compassionate side as cameos of other characters make a welcome addition.
He cautious that Mr. Bump will hurt himself and Mr. Greedy will eat too much.

It's the local wizard that suggests writing a list of all his concerns which is a nice way to explain to young readers to open up and talk about there worries.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m worried I’ll never catch up with my review writing backlog… Except I’m not... because it's time for:

Twenty Five 'Reviews' In One Day: Book 9!

This is a really sweet book. Mr. Worry, like most Mr. Men, lives up to his name. He worries about everything and his friends are at a loss as to how to help him. Then he meets a wizard who comes up with a solution that will be familiar to anybody with anxiety problems of their own. A rare entry in the series, as it offers a real-world solution that could be applied by children (or adults) who suffer with anxiety. It's slightly undermined by the joke ending, but not too much.

My next book: Iron Fist: Heart of the Dragon

[David Sarkies · Rating 3 out of 5]

To Worry About Everything
23 June 2018

Here I am, sitting in a pub in Newtown, one of the coolest inner city Sydney suburbs, having just finished a couple of books. Well, that isn’t quite true because one of them did happen to be this book and it really doesn’t take all that much effort to read a Mr Men book. However, I’m really not sure where I got this book because somebody seemed to have decided to edit it, though whoever edited it did so in pencil, which is a good thing. One thing though is that they drew their own pictures and blu-tacked them over a couple of other pictures.



So, what did they actually edit, and who did the editing? Well, using my non-existent skill of deductive reasoning, I have concluded my sister, namely because the hand writing looks awfully similar to that of my sister. Though I’m a little surprised that my sister edited the book the way she did. But what did she edit? Well, she changed each of the references of a wizard to Jesus. In fact, a part of me is wondering whether this was a project that was done at school, because honestly, a school that gives you the cane for playing Dungeons and Dragons on the grounds that you are consorting with the devil is surely a school that would encourage its students to do something like this to books. In fact, a school that fails you because you wrote a project on dinosaurs from an evolutionary standpoint is surely a school were such shenanigans are not beyond it. Hey, no wonder I ended up dropping out and becoming a rebellious teenager.

Yet in a way she is right when she did this, and I must admit that she is quite clever as well, because this could quite easily be one of those encouraging books. You see, the problem with Mr Worry is that he simply worries about anything and everything. However, the only way that Hargreaves solves this is by having a wizard pop up and wave his magic wand. Sure, having Jesus appear in front of you and tell you to stop worrying is probably just as unrealistic to some people, though I do think she has a point. The thing is that she is pointing to something substantial, whereas the wizard really doesn’t do all that much to help us deal with the problem of needless worrying. Sure, this is a kid’s book, I grant that, but I guess there is little to support the need for a wizard to solve all of Mr Worry’s problems. In a way, it would be better for one of his friends to knock some sense into him, metaphorically speaking of course.

Honestly, I don’t want to turn this into an evangelistic sermon about how Jesus solves all of your problems, because while I don’t particularly care about trolls (and I get trolled by militant Atheists and Christians alike) I don’t want to get all that preachy as well. However, the catch is that I can relate to Mr Worry, and despite being a Christian, I can assure you that I still worry. Actually, I know lots and lots of Christians that are worry worts. It’s not as if they don’t trust Jesus, it is just that for some of us it is part of human nature. No matter how hard we try we simply just cannot stop worrying. For instance, I worry about all of the answers that I wrote down in my exam, despite the fact that the exam is done and finished. Then again, ever since I started a degree in Computer Science I now appreciate why people hate exams.

So, yeah, I can’t really comment too much on a book that has been edited in the way that this book has been edited, but I still have to jump on her side, not so much that she is my sister (though that does help, despite the fact that we have wanted to tear each others’ throats out at times) but because she is right. She actually, in my opinion, made this book better than I expected simply by getting rid of that silly wizard and putting something (even if it is Jesus) in to replace him. Then again, if it wasn’t for that I probably wouldn’t have picked this up in the first place.

[RM · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best exegeses of a mental state out there, complete with a pleasantly optimistic conclusion.

[Abbey Avocado · Rating 2 out of 5]

fatphobic

[Les Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m worried in case Lucy didn’t enjoy the story

[Lisa Bland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love these books i think they're brilliant and almost everyone has read or come across one of these books. This one in particular is about a character called Mr Worry who worries about everything. For example, he worries when it rains in case his roof leaks, he worries if it doesn't rain because his plants in the garden may die. Throughout the book Mr Worry worries about 12 different things and a wizard tells him to write everything down so that he wont worry about anything anymore. However, when he realises he now has nothing to worry about he then becomes worried because he wasn't worrying about anything.

I like how the author incorporates some of the other characters into the book. For example, Mr Worry bumps into Mr Noisy and is worried Mr Noisy will lose his voice. (Good way of advertising here)!

The character in this book is portrayed really well and the illustrations are very bright and colourful. The illustrations also represent the characters. For example, Mr Worry has worry lines on his forehead and his face looks concerned.

Overall there are 43 books to this collection and i think they're fab. Children of any age will love reading these books but the target reader would probably be Key stage 1.

[Godzilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story for our troubled times: so many things to worry about and so little time to do it in.

Mr Worry encapsulates the zeitgeist and teaches us how to tackle our irrational fears, although he does have a friendly wizard to help him. Harry Potter should be doing more community work like this!

A lesson in life laid bare here: stop your worrying and enjoy life. Which seems slightly strange for a children's book - my children never seem to have too many worries, so perhaps the message is aimed more at the adults reading it as a bedtime story....

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, Mr Men and Little Miss, how wonderful you are!

These books made up so much of my childhood. No matter what I would go ahead and pick one up. I worked my way through them all a couple of times. Each one has a wonderful story for the child to engage with, each character being fun to read.

Everyone has a bias for their favourite character, yet every book is delightful.

[Danielle Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Worry could really benefit from embracing the concept of living in the now. Many of his worries are small potatoes, as one might say, but others are quite valid. I too worry about Mr Greedy and what toll his excessive gluttonous diet is taking on his health.

[Sarah A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great Mr Men story about how we can worry about everything but in the end, it makes life a bit miserable! Fun story and great illustrations as always.

[Raemly · Rating 4 out of 5]

La historia de mi día a día contada en un pequeño libro que contiene unas magníficas ilustraciones.

[jiawen · Rating 4 out of 5]

mr worry is me, i am mr worry

i don't think there was a whole lot of actual plot/development here, but i appreciated how this anxiety/worry kind of state was discussed :-)

[gigi_booksworld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Μια ��ικρή ταύτιση 🥲

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about me

[Gary E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute book.

Combined audio and e-book . . . very well done.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Think I’m right in stating that as a boy I had all the pre-1990 Mr Men books with the possible exception of “Mr Snow”. Looking at all the covers apart from the latter jogged my memory.

Sadly I remember little about the stories now, despite reading them numerous times during my boyhood, plus watching the Mr Men cartoons more than once.

Reckon the last time I would’ve read these was 1983, though may have returned to them as late as 1985. Although I’ve forgotten almost everything about this title and all the others I feel that owing to the amount of times I read each publication that they all deserve to be rated five stars.

I’m grateful to Roger Hargreaves for brightening up my childhood with both his Mr Men and the Timbuctoo series of books.

[Alannah Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved these Mr Men and Little Miss books. I remember getting them from my granny every week. There was so much from these simple characters, I remember filling my little bookshelf with all these books making sure I had got them all in right order. I wish I still had these books but somehow most of them got lost with many house moves or my mum gave the rest away. If I ever have kids, I will make sure they get the chance to experience these wonderful, colourful books.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the character designs, the multitude of characters in this world, and the voice that the author uses. I've even grown used to the lack of resolution in these books. However, this one ends on such a sorrow note that my first thought was that I'd never want to read this to my kid again.

I can see that you could possibly have a lesson about trying not to worry too much, so there are some redeeming elements, but this story just wasn't for me.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already enjoy it when Mommy reads the Mr. Men books to me, the pictures are so funny.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good ending. So true.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

the "Mr." books are great, this one helped me be the care free guy I am today.

[Patrick\ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read-aloud series - with a moral.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Worry learns not to worry so much with a little help from a wizard.

[Taylor O'shae]

k

[τλιϓλ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nice one.

[Wayne Farmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book about me...

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book because I do not like to worry. I also did not like this book because Mr. Worry worried a lot.

[Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

L’anxiété est le mal du siècle, du XXIe siècle, titrait je ne sais plus quel magazine américain (The Atlantic ?) Des anxieuses, des anxieux, j’en connais plein, médicamenté.es, pas médimenté.es, ça pullule dans mon entourage ; il paraît que même les enfants développent des troubles nerveux de plus en plus jeunes. Pression ? Surprotection ? Allez savoir. En tout cas, Monsieur Inquiet, lui, est un très très grand anxieux. Il s’empêtre dans ses scénarios et ses craintes, vit la peur au ventre que le pire n’arrive, il existe avec la conviction de son incompétence et de son impuissance. Son rapport est l’autre est lui-même conditionné par l’angoisse : sa compassion s’exprime à travers l’angoisse, filtrée par elle. J’ai peur pour toi donc je t’aime. Même si la structure adoptée par ce volume suit la recette des Monsieur/Madame, à savoir une présentation brève et une série de rencontres qui révèlent la personnalité du protagoniste, la leçon transcende la formule. L’anxiété dévore tout, et faute d’un objet réel, se nourrit d’elle-même. Je n’en dirai pas plus, sinon que la fin ironique de cette fable est tout à fait savoureuse, et amène étrangement à une véritable réflexion : comment apaiser Monsieur Inquiet ? Comment apaiser une génération dévorée par la peur ? Comment vivre, en fait ? Sérieusement, à mettre dans toutes les salles d’attente de psys.