I have a bit of an issue with books – a good one, but an expensive one; I love them. Something so special about holding one and knowing it is going to teach you something, make you feel differently about a subject or just completely sweep you away into a whole new world. If I pass on anything to my daughter I hope it will be this love of reading.
As a result of my fascination with books I often review sport and psychology books on here. So far all my reviews have all been focused on adults but there is a new children’s book from Susie Bush-Ramsey and Chrissie Wellington (yes that one – the four times world champion triathlete ) which fits the psychology bill so I thought it deserved a review. It is called You’re so Strong.
The book follows a conversation between a little girl, her brother and a tree. The tree becomes a metaphor for developing mental strength; faith that what we start now will be valuable in the future, the importance of roots to keep us stable, focusing on your own skills (not comparing to others), feeding ourselves with positive thoughts, handling setbacks, using biofeedback to learn, working in partnership and lastly (and I’d argue most importantly) gratitude. These are all concepts we use in performance psychology and we know the younger we start to incorporate them into our language and really boost children’s emotional literacy the better protected they can be against some mental health issues.
I read it with my mini reviewer but she is only 4 and I think she is still a little young – and because the illustrations are in black and white she was very keen to get her pencils out and colour them all in – but I would say from 6 up this would make a really lovely book to give a little one a nice gentle introduction to positive psychology and the benefits it brings.
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