Book Review - "Hey Warrior" - A Book for Kids About Anxiety - By Karen Young

"Kids can do amazing things with the right information. Understanding why anxiety feels the way it does and where it comes from is a powerful step in turning anxiety around. Anxiety explained, kids empowered." Karen Young

​Purchased from Booktopia. 

​The cost of a hardcopy was $18.75 + $6.95 shipping AU.

This book was reviewed by my daughters aged 6, 11 and 15 years old.

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Review from a 6 Year old - Miss A
This was a book that needed to be read to Miss A. 
She was very excited when she saw the book's cover. However, I noticed that after a few pages she became distracted which is not like her when it comes to books.  We persevered and got half way through however unfortunately we did not make it to the end of the book! 

Miss A was happy to answer some questions.
Did you like the book? It was a bit boring.  I didn't really understand it.
What was it about?  It was about different parts of your body - like stomachs
What did you like about it?  I liked the pictures and that the nice monster was guarding the boy.

Review from an 11 year old
I liked this book and think it would be cool for readers my age.  It was interesting and taught me a lot about anxiety and the amygdala.  I felt that I could relate to some things in the book.

The pictures made it feel like a storybook but younger children might not understand a lot of what was in the book.  Looking at the cover of the book you would not know it is about anxiety if it didn't say.
I think it was cool that they turned the amygdala into a warrior.

Review from a 15 year old
There were a lot of things to learn from this book such as anxiety is common and everyone goes through it.  I like how they gave examples of anxiety and how they described anxiety as showing us we are about to do something brave.  I found learning about the amygdala interesting.

This book would be really good for kids who don't know what anxiety is as it breaks it down.  The examples in the book help to make it easier to understand and helps explain things. I liked the example of when you burn toast and set off a fire alarm and how the fire alarm can't tell the difference between smoke from a fire or from burnt toast - just like our amygdala.

I felt that some parts of the book such as learning about the part of the brain and some of the words used were appropriate for my age.  However I felt that the pictures in the book were more for younger kids.  Due to the pictures I would say that this book would be ideal for 10-11 year olds.  However I am sure some kids my age would learn things too.

CONCLUSION
I had heard great things about this book so was very excited to get it! I was quite surprised when I received it as I had assumed the target audience was much younger than it is.  

I tend to agree with all of the reviews above.  I thought that it provided a great overview of anxiety and I  love the fact that the author normalised anxiety and pointed out it is a feeling.  There was a great overview of the role of the amygdala and I loved how it was portrayed as a warrior.  There are many, many great examples which will help children understand the information presented. It gave suggestions for children to try when they are feeling anxious such as breathing.  There is also a checklist section at the back of the book for children to explore their strengths or 'the cool things about me."

I would agree that this book is more suitable for upper primary/Intermediate (9-10+ years) depending on the child.  I was expecting more of a storybook hence why I thought it was targeted to younger children.  However it is more of an informative book which is very creatively written.

Highly recommended.  It provides a fantastic overview of anxiety - what anxiety is, the role of the brain, how it can present and what we can do. It would be a great resource to have at home, in classrooms and in school library's.  I thought that it was a great price too!