The book does a great job at showing children when shyness is normal to when shyness can be harmful to a person - i.e. when shyness keeps you from doing things that you want to do. How Do I Feel About Making Friends by Sarah Levete, another informational book, also touches on how shyness can keep people from making new friends. One girl in Levete's book answers to: "Do you make friends easily?" states, "Not really. Sometimes I think that nobody will like me-that makes me feel shy (Levete, 1996, p. 13). Hooway for Wodney Wat, by Helen Lester, is a book that has a character who demonstrates the second type of shyness as he is concerned of his speech impediment. Rodney is a rat who has a speech impediment in which he can not pronounce his R's. At the beginning of the book Rodney is a shy and reserved rat who barely squeaks. All the other rodents at the rodent elementary school make fun of his pronunciations, which reinforces his feelings of shyness. It is not until the end of the book that the members of his class learn to respect his differences and accept him as a member of the class. The acceptance that the other rodents offer Rodney helps him overcome his fears of rejection. Sometimes shyness is seen as the quality of being quiet. Some children may also show only very mild signs of being shy. These types of shyness are not harmful and should not necessarily be something to be concerned about. People who are more overt and obtrusive frequently have more problems then more quiet people. "The absence of shyness has been recognized as an antisocial characteristic since at least the time of the ancient Greeks," (Seid, 1999, p. 43). For this reason there may not be reason for parents or teaches to push children. Teachers and parents need to see to what degree a child's shyness is harming that particular child. Some shy children come out of their shell on their own and need to progress at their own comfort level (Zimbardo, 1981).
