What are children afraid of?

Matt once told me to challenge myself - to try and create illustrations different to what I have done so far and what I am used to - happy, cutesy stuff - this is why I chose the paranoia/mental illness topic to focus on as it's good opportunity to do just that. However, after I presented my findings and ideas in the peer review session (about making a book that's more serious and different to what I have done in the previous module), my peers thought that maybe making a book about this sort of thing might be challenging to do as it is quite a sensitive subject - that there might be a risk of maybe offending some people if not careful. My peers suggested that maybe I look at something more child friendly that touches the fear/paranoia theme such as fairytales and monsters.

I went away from this review session with one main question on my mind: What are children afraid of?

Common childhood anxieties and fears:

Infant/toddler:

• loud noises or sudden movements
• large looming objects
• strangers
• separation
• changes in the house

Fears during pre-school years:

• the dark - things under the bed, the closet
• noises at night
• masks
• monsters and ghosts
• animals such as dogs

During school years:

• Snakes and spiders
• storms and natural disasters
• being home alone
• fear of teacher who is angry
• scary news/tv shows
• injury, illness, doctors
• fear of failure/rejection

Sources:
children.webmd.com on childhood fears and anxieties

IDEA:

• Picture book with children as target audience
• illustrations supported by text/story
• a story about a little kid who sees monster everywhere he/she goes e.g:
• the shop
• the bus
• swimming pool
• the park
• school
• doctors
• own room
• that makes him/her scared about something e.g:
• the dark
• people
• kid gets fed up, confronts them and learns that the monsters only wanted to (the one at the swimming pool) learn to swim, (the one at school) read etc and that there's nothing to be afraid of anymore