My Hidden Chimp: From the best-selling author of The Chimp Paradox

This book was recommended to us by a teacher at our daughter's school to try and help her understand how her brain works. The book is well written and presented in a way that makes the information accessible to children with activities for them to complete along the way. Our daughter loves the illustrations and is enjoying reading it, it was her chosen book to take into school to read today - so a definite win!

I am a huge fan of the chimp paradox and so it is probably not a surprise that I like this. I see this book as a relatively simple means of understanding how emotions can have huge benefits or create challenges for us. More importantly it provides a number of ways in which we can choose to manage them and provides reasons why we would benefit from doing so. I really like the fact that there is a strong scientific basis for all of the ideas but that all of the content is presented in a manner that children could easily understand. One word of caution. Passively reading the book is unlikely to be as effective as reading it, thinking things through and practicing some things. Therefore different people would need to approach things differently, there is unlikely to be a one size fits all approach. I would thoroughly recommend this book particularly for: 1) children who want to understand how their emotions can take control of their thinking and can be incredibly helpful as well as challenging 2) adults who want to help children build their understanding and skills 3) adults who would like an introduction to the chimp paradox - this book could be a great start point A key learning for me (albeit it now seems obvious) is how expectations should ideally change with a child’s age. As an adult I have a set of experiences, knowledge, thoughts and feelings. It’s easy to see children as smaller versions of adults and in some ways they may be at least some of the time. However, a child’s abilities change and grow as they get older. Therefore being realistic on what we might reasonably expect a child to be able to think, do, feel etc. could be extremely important. As adults we are likely to have much greater flexibility and choice available to us. A little thought could make it much easier for the child to behave and express themselves in a way that we’re both as happy with as possible. It sounds so simple when I put it like that, but it could be a really powerful insight. Making it as easy as possible to get good outcomes – what’s not to like? In summary a great book but not a magic bullet. It is written in a simple style which could appear simplistic but the ideas are really powerful.

So good for my highly emotional 7 year old. An interactive workbook where he can write down his feelings and emotions really helped. It also helped him get his feelings out in words and he tells me his chimp was around on days when he’s feeling really overwhelmed.

Has a disobedient chimp

Highly recommend this for parents trying to manage and help children with anxiety. Helps them manage their feelings much!

This book really helps you to be able to control your anger and to be positive. It has lots of fun activities you can do and the illustrations are good as well as funny. Temper will get you nowhere. Look on the bright side. However, there are also times where they help you e.g You want to go for a swim but your chimp says it's to deep. This helped me, as I will admit, sometimes I get angry myself. If you forget about how to calm down, just read this book again! By Andew, age 9.

I'm a big fan of the chimp paradox and silent guides and have in the past talked about the methods to my daughter in order to help her manage her emotions, with little success. I bought this book in the hope that reading about the topic first hand would help. She loves the comic book style and took to it immediately. She now picks up the book at bedtime without any prompting. I am so happy that she has already started taking about ways to manage her chimp, as an 8 year old. I only wish I had found this book earlier as it's up there with one of the best investments I've made as a parent. Thank you Prof. Peters !

This book is great to understand how the brain works! Really easy read and easy for children to understand and participate

Important concepts explained to children. Step by step guide and activities for kids to complete. 10 habits for kids to practice in real life situations

It is a very good book recommended from school. My son love it.

I bought this for one of my grandaughters. It did take quite awhile to arrive but then I guess that's due to international shipping. She absolutely loves it though!