Jennifer Rabby

"Rabby’s humorous, mixed-media illustrations—which feature cartoon characters, painterly backgrounds, and innovative erasing of slithery, black outlines—will generate enough smiles to put creepy-crawlies on the run. A silly picture book that offers readers humor to confront anxieties."

-- Kirkus Reviews (February 1, 2019)

"(B)y placing the control in their small hands, children can visualize getting rid of ... pesky thoughts with action and imagination. And with a variety of strategies for dealing with those creepy-crawlies, Alison Hughes ensures that there's at least one that will work for any child. Moreover her rhyming text, sure to annoy those monstrous thoughts, brings a lightness and manageability to the plight of a child dealing with anxiety.

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Jennifer Rabby's illustrations are relatively simple but effective in giving form to the creepy-crawlies. After all, how do you illustrate a negative thought that pervades without creating new fears for children? By making the creepy-crawly thoughts vague and nebulous blobs of different colours and facial (?) expressions,  Jennifer Rabby suggests that there are a variety of detrimental thoughts that cause anxiety and worry and need to be eliminated. Moreover, their fuzzy shapes suggests the enigmatic nature of most fears and worries, allowing children to see their own within these amorphous forms."  

-- Canlit for Little Canadians (February 6, 2019)