How to Train Your Amygdala” helps young children learn to appropriately tame their fight or flight response. The amygdala is portrayed as a creature with fuzzy fur (I’d personally like a plushie of this little guy for my classroom) who often overreacts to situations. However, with proper training it learns to tame its reactions to daily life. This delightful story and illustrations make a pretty complex topic comprehensible to young children.

I love that author Anna Housley Juster makes it clear that our amygdala is important and helps protect us, so we don’t want to punish it. We just need to train it to recognize real danger.

Similar to many other books in this category, there are tips for adults to help their little ones. There are specific instructions for different kinds of breathing exercises (one example is box breathing) to help “tame” your amygdala.

This book is great for kids (and their adults) who experience anxiety or otherwise have trouble regulating emotions.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and Teacher Created Materials, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a really well written and clear book to help children understand how their amygdala functions and it's role in the management of their emotions, especially more difficult emotions such as anger, anxiety and so on.

By illustrating a series of simple techniques that any child will be able to do, the book teaches children what they can do in order to prevent themselves from spiralling in emotional terms.

I like the way that things are explained here and also the fact that it is repeatedly emphasized that practice will help children to automatically draw on the tools provided here more effectively.

There is also a section advising adults on how to help their children practice these techniques and also on how and why the amygdala operates in the way that it does. Overall, this book is highly recommended for parents and children - and in fact, really anyone who needs to understand in simple terms how our brain affects our emotions and how we can better regulate those emotions.

What an interesting way to explain to children how and why our body reacts to stressful situations! Not only was this explaining easily to my 4-year old, but I learned some things as well. Fun pictures and great explanations.

This book is a fantastic way to help children understand what’s happening in their brain to make them behave certain ways. I love instead of talking about kids needing to change/control something about themselves, it frames it as helping train their amygdala. It’s a great way to give them tools and strategies to help manage their emotions without labelling those emotions as wrong or problematic.

How to Train Your Amygdala was an excellent book! This book helps kids learn about their amygdala and how to handle stress. I like the teaching ,method of how to breathe, and the later various breathing techniques children can do. The illustrations were fun and clear to understand.

This would be an excellent book to share with a child having emotional issues. I could envision a parent, a teacher or even a school guidance counselor sharing this book. The text and illustrations work together to make the information appealing. I hope this becomes a series helping children deal with their emotions. The section presenting ways to breathe and meditate would be great to teach anyone of any age.