Attack of the Heebie Jeebies by Tom Percival

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Erika’s young brother (Randall) is ruining everything: Not only has he taken all their parents attention, he cried all the way through the school play, chewed the fingers off her favourite toy and spilt blackcurrant juice on her favourite t-shirt. So, when he destroyed her picture, Erika lost her temper and found herself in a time out. All of this is still on her mind when she goes to sleep (where most of this story take place).

While Tom Percival has created an alluring story of heroes (the Dream Team) and monsters (the Heebie Jeebies and the Angermare) in Erika’s dream world, it does also deal with the underlying issues of jealousy, anger and nightmares – which makes this great to read together – as there are so many conversation starters. The book is also filled with humour and Percival’s beautiful illustrations, which will only increase the appeal of this book (the first in a wonderful new series).

Some of the language within the story will be challenging for lower KS2 (with words like obliterated), so it could be difficult for most to read alone but would make a great class read. In addition to this, as with Percival’s picture books this would be a great resource for ELSAs - not only dealing with the challenges of young siblings but also dealing with bad dreams and anger.