By Kevin Henkes
Wemberly is a mouse who worries about everything, and the first day of school is her biggest worry yet, until she gets to the classroom and meets another mouse who worries just like she does.
Wemberly worries about big things, small things, and everything in between: the crack in the living room wall, the tree in the yard, whether the radiators will hiss. Her family keeps telling her she worries too much, which only hands her one more thing to worry about. Then the biggest worry of all arrives, the first day of school, and she spends the night fretting with her stuffed rabbit, Petal, held tight. At school she notices another little mouse holding a stuffed animal the same way she holds Petal, and the day turns out easier than she feared.
Kevin Henkes takes Wemberly's worrying seriously without ever scolding it, and that's what makes the book work for a child who worries a lot. She isn't talked out of it; she carries the worry right into the classroom, and what helps her is finding one other mouse who feels the same. The whole time, the book stays warm and a little funny. Petal, the stuffed rabbit Wemberly holds the whole way through, is a small detail a worried child may hold onto too.