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A bird's-eye-view introduction to living with anxiety disorder and how to begin to change it
Kathy Hoopmann has written over twenty books with translations into nineteen languages. Her work sells widely in Australia, the UK, the US and the Middle East. She has won and been shortlisted for many literary awards, including the Children's Book Council of Australia Award, the ALCS Educational Award (UK), the Living Now Award (US) and has five times been awarded a Nautilus Award (US) which is granted to 'books that change the world'. Kathy is best known for her writing on neurodiversity, in fiction and non-fiction. The simplicity, charm and insight of Kathy's books have made them must-haves for children and adults worldwide.
Whilst anxiety is a normal and universally experienced emotion,
problems with anxiety are becoming increasingly common in children.
Anxiety affects many aspects of children's functioning. Children
who experience excessive anxiety find it more difficult to learn,
and they feel uncomfortable socially. Anxiety can take the fun out
of childhood. In the book, All Birds Have Anxiety Kathy Hoopmann
creatively communicates in a developmentally appropriate way
information about anxiety, how it affects people and most
importantly what can be done to manage it. Using beautiful pictures
and carefully crafted words, All Birds Have Anxiety is an excellent
book that will enable adults to discuss anxiety with children and
together develop better strategies to cope with this difficult
emotion.
*Associate Professor James Scott, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research*
With their mix of words and pictures Kathy Hoopmann's books have
always put a smile on my face even as they've explained complex and
sometimes scary issues in terms any child can understand. All Cat's
Have Asperger's made autism relatable to thousands of children. Her
new book on anxiety promises to do the same for a much more common
condition that all of us know, and many of us live with.
*John Elder Robison, NY Times Bestselling author, Look Me in the
Eye and Switched On; Neurodiversity Scholar, The College of William
& Mary*
Kathy's wonderful book is a powerful educational resource for
parents and teachers alike. This book normalises the experience of
anxiety, it explains how worry happens and how it affects us, but
it also gives hope on how to overcome worry, stress, and fear. It
helps children and adults overcome self-doubt and life challenges.
The beautiful images are carefully selected, displaying common
emotions amongst all living beings.
I strongly recommend this fun book to children of all ages,
educators and parents.
*Dr Paula Barrett, International Author of the Friends Resilience
Programs, www.friendsresilience.org*
Once again, I am in awe of Kathy's ability to make the seemingly
complicated, simple and accessible for all. Anxiety runs deep in
our society - sometimes emerging as a pattern, and impacting on a
negative way in our classrooms, home places and work places. 'All
Birds Have Anxiety' is a wonderfully engaging resource that reminds
us how to recognise the symptoms of anxiety in ourselves and
others. She provides practical advice on how to acknowledge and
deal with this emotion effectively. Not only will this book benefit
the children that access it, but so too will it remind the adults
in their lives of effective strategies that we can employ for
ourselves and model for the children in our care. I will be
recommending this resource as part of an intervention strategy to
be implemented by parents, teachers and therapists of children that
are facing challenges in managing anxiety. So too will I recommend
it for use as part of a pro-active approach to promoting and
maintaining positive mental health in our schools.
*GrĂ¡inne Boyle, Educational Psychologist and Director of The
Innovation Hub, Dubai*
Building on All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome and All Dogs Have ADHD,
Hoopmann uses stock photographs of dozens of birds to convey
aspects of life with anxiety. The project relies heavily on
anthropomorphism-namely reading worry, frustration, and fear in the
faces and body language of eagles, penguins, and other birds, none
of which are identified. 'When stress builds up, anything can set
off anxiety, such as: a change of plan, something new, a comment, a
thought. Stuff,' writes Hoopmann beside an image of a horned owl,
its wide, orange eyes meant to signal extreme alarm. The text and
images are well paired, but 50 pages of
stressed-and-depressed-looking birds and their 'symptoms'
('Wide-awake thoughts churn in our minds') is a lot to wade through
before Hoopmann begins to suggest ways to combat anxiety in the
final third of the book. Ages 4-up. (Mar.)
*Publishers Weekly*
K-Gr 3-Hoopmann explores the complicated subject of anxiety,
including many of its causes and symptoms and different coping
mechanisms, in this compact, accessible title. The book is composed
of colorful and often humorous photographs of various types of
birds, accompanied by simple sentences about day-to-day life with
anxiety. For example, a page about feeling nervous in crowds is
paired with an image of a large colony of penguins. This
lighthearted approach helps make a complex topic child-friendly and
easy to understand. Readers are provided with an overview of the
daily feelings and challenges associated with apprehension.
Suggested solutions are also presented. Hoopmann encourages readers
to face what scares them and see it as something that can be
managed. By offering an empathetic and relatable look at anxiety,
this resource can help promote mental health awareness among
children and their families. VERDICT A fine addition to school
libraries and guidance counselor offices.
*School Library Journal*
Useful for discussion on anxiety, how it manifests and different
ways of dealing with it. Oh - and the pictures will make you smile
a lot!
*Janet Dowling, The School Librarian*
Anxiety is a highly topical and pertinent issue, since it is being
identified as a barrier to social inclusion and learning for more
and more children. The book explores its complexities in an
innovative way, using different types of birds to beautifully
illustrate the fears that anxiety might produce, the thoughts and
emotions that can arise, and crucially, what children could do that
might help them to manage these more effectively.
*Helen Punter-Bruce, Special Children*
A very worried little snowy owl looks out from the cover of this
exceptional picture book. In wonderfully expressive photographs and
short bursts of text, we learn a lot about anxiety...Not sleeping,
feeling groggy or panicky, not being able to cope with ordinary
tasks - all of these are talked about in simple terms with amazing
photos of birds illustrating the problems involved... This is a
book that could be used by anyone from about 9 upwards (adults as
well) and will provide humour as well as serious content.
*Healthy Books, healthybooks.org.uk*
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