Barbara’s wobbler grows and grows and grows, until it is the only thing that she can see or feel. Think of strategies that you can use to calm down when you are feeling upset. Nadia Shireen enjoyed making homemade magazines and comics as a child. She studied law at university and then worked in magazine journalism; it was during this time that she started to draw again. After a lifetime of doodling in the sidelines, Nadia decided to pay some attention to drawing and in 2007 was accepted onto an MA course in children’s book illustration at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Her debut book, Good Little Wolf, received a mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award and won the UKLA Book Award. Nadia has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. She lives in London.

Thankfully Nadia Shireen isn’t giving us a ‘fix’ for wobblers, she is giving children a way to manage them when they appear - poor Barbara looks like she has a few more lurking wobblers to deal with going forward, just like every little Barbara out there.These are the most brilliant, beautiful and silly picture-books out there at the moment. Little doorways of joy." Caitlin Moran Barbara is very familiar. In fact, there is a ‘Barbara’ in my home right now, my nearly 6 year-old daughter. Geoffrey's got the jitters! It started last night when he was thinking about school - a funny, wiggly feeling in his tummy that grew and grew. But when Geoffrey's tummy jitters started talking to him - that's when he knew they were out of control. Geoffrey had to do something... Draw some illustrations of the same character showing different emotions. How does their face change? How does their body language change?

Nadia Shireen enjoyed making homemade magazines and comics as a child, and during her time studying law at university and her subsequent career in journalism, she started to sketch again. Her debut book Good Little Wolf received a mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award, and went on to win the UKLA Book Award. Nadia’s subsequent books have since been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, The Sainsbury’s Book Award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. Design a game in which a person has to catch a ‘wobbler’ and un-make it, like Barbara does in the story. A perfect empathy-building book, with a joyful ending which brings a lump to the throat. A totally silent little boy is nurtured by empathetic teacher Miss Flotsam who builds his confidence to realise his voice is beautiful, until he finally uses it, very movingly. Every child deserves the chance to have an empathetic adult in their lives, and Miss Flotsam shows how powerfully transformative this can be. Like many little people, Barbara doesn't really know what a wobbler is, why it’s looming or how to control it.Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments

Scientific research shows that empathy is learnable and that books are a powerful empathy-building tool. The world so badly needs more empathy, and non-profit EmpathyLab aims to raise an empathy-educated generation, to build a more caring and less divided world.But thanks to Nadia Shireen, who has hilariously normalised a wobbler, we can now all help the ‘Barbara’s’ in our lives and classes SQUISH theirs and encourage a healthy understanding of emotions, feelings and acceptance. The 7-10+ category features no less than four exciting debut authors and for the very first time a graphic novel. When Stars are Scattered written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson with Omar Mohamed, tells the story of Omar and his brother Hassan and topically depicts the harsh reality faced by refugees. When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten , a stunning debut from Pushkin, tells an evocative tale of memory loss, family and friendships. Bloomsbury have two titles on the list. Lesley Parr’s debut novel, The Valley of Lost Secrets, a powerful story of wartime evacuation to Wales, and the Carnegie shortlisted October October by Katya Balen. Knights Of also have two books in this category. Front Desk the debut novel from Kelly Yang which draws on her own experiences of moving from China to America, and the Blue Peter and Waterstones award winning debut from Elle McNicholl, A Kind of Spark. Available in both Welsh and English this superb short novel is set in a dystopian world where The End came in 2018. The electricity went off and the ‘normal’ 21c world disappeared. 14 year old Dylan is surviving, isolated, with his mam above Nebo village in north-west Wales. His emotions are wonderfully, sparsely drawn and we really care about him and his tiny family. A great springboard for discussion of powerful emotions, and the connections between us that make life worth living, whatever. teachers nominated from the 85 involved in the shortlistingwill now form the final judging panel and have the challenging task of reading all the shortlisted books in all categories. The winner’s announcement will take place at the UKLA International Conference in Birmingham on July 1 st