Fans pick 100 books like The Strength Switch

After reading this book, I changed my entire view on how the brain works and how easily those around us can shape us. Dr Perry talks about some of the worst cases of childhood trauma and neglect.

In one story, a boy was raised as a dog, so he grew up believing he was one. This shows how our environment shapes us during our formative years. We are the products of our upbringing; for some, that’s great, but for others, we grow up to tell stories about ourselves that aren’t ours.

So, people never go on to do what they want to in life because they were told they couldn't, and they should have lived their whole lives believing that that statement is true, that the programming they’ve got is reality, which they need to live by.

It is difficult to imagine a more adverse childhood experience than growing up in a refugee camp.

In 2016 and 2017, I was privileged to spend some time working with children and families in a refugee camp in North France. The living conditions were very difficult, with regular food shortages, ill health, uncertainty, and ever-present danger. However,  I was continually amazed by the resilience, creativity, generosity, and humour shown by the children, even in the face of such difficulties.

When Stars Are Scattered is a beautiful children’s book that tells the true story of Omar and his brother Hassan as they grow up in a Kenyan refugee camp. Filled with beautiful illustrations and thoughtful insights into daily life in the camp, this book exemplifies hope in the face of adversity. 

I have long been interested in Seigman's work on positive psychology. Increasingly, we are living in a world where hope is a diminishing commodity. Wars, economic downturns, and the climate crisis are all making life feel more uncertain, and 24-hour news culture and an omnipresent internet make it difficult for young people to escape the negative images that bombard them.

Statistics on children and young people’s mental health are frightening, with NHS England estimating that in 2023, 1 in 5 children and young people aged between 8 and 25 had a probable mental health disorder. Parents and practitioners alike are looking at these statistics in dismay and wondering how we can best equip and safeguard our children. Seligman’s book confronts these issues head-on in a thought-provoking and evidenced-based way.

This highly practical book considers how optimism can be learned and that by viewing setbacks as temporary, children and young people… show more.

I am always looking for books that can help children and young adults to understand difficult issues. Endorsed by EmpathyLab, Sold is an extraordinary novel that explores the world of trafficking and modern-day slavery from the perspective of Roza, a fifteen-year-old Albanian girl who comes to the UK expecting a better life but finds herself trapped into a life of domestic servitude.

In this riveting read, Roza exemplifies human resilience, courage, and determination. She is a great example of an individual building on her own strengths and the help of those around her to overcome immense adversity.

Aimed at young adults, this book can also be beneficial to practitioners who can use it to prompt discussion about adversity, human trafficking, and young people’s resilience.

If you have read a parenting book or taken a parenting course in the last sixty years, chances are you have been influenced by the wisdom of Haim Ginott, even if you didn’t realize it.

He and his students, including the authors of How to Talk So Children Will Listen, set the groundwork for what is known today as connection parenting, conscious parenting, gentle parenting, playful parenting, and authoritative (but not authoritarian) parenting.

When my mom passed away and I looked through her books, I saw she had a first edition of Between Parent and Child, first published when I was a young boy.

When I read it, I felt a strong flash of recognition about the way she raised me. Ginott gets children, and he gets parents.

This book singlehandedly changed the way I parented my children, especially my daughter who is very different than me in the way she processes information and how she moves through life. 

Through this book I learned to not only understand that her journey is her own and whenever I’m upset about her choices or the way she is doing things it often is because I’m inserting my own journey and fears into her life instead of letting her be who she is gloriously designed to be.

This book brought me a realization that my fears were often the motivator behind my parenting and helped me to redirect my focus to the joy and the wonder of the differences my child has and look for ways to support her strengths rather than focusing on changing what I deemed her weaknesses – thus, I was able to empower her in a way… show more.

Books offering support to parents have come on in leaps and bounds since the days when Gina Ford and Supernanny-style discipline reigned supreme. This book is my go-to book for practical advice.

Perry, a psychotherapist with more than 20 years of experience, is not interested in manipulating children’s behaviour with naughty steps and sticker charts. Her approach may incidentally help to get your children to brush their teeth and eat their vegetables, but her emphasis is on the far deeper and more important business of how to build a mutually respectful and cooperative relationship. Her voice is wise and refreshingly nonjudgmental.

This is one for parents who, in Perry’s words, "Not only love their children but want to like them, too”.

This book is the best, hands-on guide for how to talk to children that I have ever seen. It’s kind of like a how-to-talk to children for dummies.

It’s as though the authors spent years dissecting every aspect of what makes conversations between adults and kids go well and what makes them flop and then put that down in a book. And then the authors convey this information so clearly and concretely, including through the use of cartoons and worksheets.

The book also clearly exposes (in a humorous, light-hearted way) why certain ways of talking to kids fail. This is an old book but one I wish I had discovered before I had my own kids. I now intend to give it to all of my clients and friends when they become new parents. 

I loved this book because it tackled the idea of shame and blame in parenthood. It also helped me to release fear-based parenting. So much of discipline and punishment in parenthood is related to fear.

Dr. Shefali challenged me to reframe my ideas about raising a conscious, emotionally well child. 

Reading this book made me a better mom almost overnight! It impacted me and changed the way I approach my relationship with my kids more than I thought was possible.

I’m a mom of five kids and a pretty darn good one, but this book took parenthood to the next level for me. I wish I had read it years ago! Now I can hardly imagine parenting without this insightful, informative, inspiring, book.