This is an interesting, if a bit clinical, read. Good reminders about my own attitude as well as what I am teaching my children. While most of the practical exercises are directed at children older than my own (they are written for middle school age), the ideas are useful reminders for all of us.

This is an excellent reference text for all parents. It provides concrete methods for equipping your children with the tools that will prevent them from ever being the victims of depression and anxiety. As a teacher I think the text will have dual uses as I can incorporate some of these ideas into my teaching.

Loved the ideas in this book. Love that you as the parent need to learn and model the behavior that teaches your children. I was surprised to read the author’s ideas on creating optimistic children. I thought it would be all about positive self talk and being loving and accepting. But our kids know when we are lying to them, even with good intentions, they need to be told the truth, even when it is hard. Optimism comes through hard work and achievement, and realistic interpretations of life experience. Unearned Cheerleading and praise that isn’t merit based leads to apathetic and depressed kids.

Here’s the best praise for this book I can think of. The authors premise is that this book can teach you how to inoculate your children from depression. I read it probably 6 years ago and taught my kids a lot of the lessons from the book at that time. Right now I am reading a Brene brown book about shame so I started asking my kids questions about their internal voice and dialogue. The 3 kids who I trained from this book have super healthy thought patterns and great strategies for handling shame and disappointment. They are second nature to them and they had a hard time imagining a person who could not think so flexibly. I know they are using the strategies I taught them from this book. Now I need to go through it with my younger kids.

A must-read for every parent!

Good book, not just for researchers but even more oriented to parents, based on decades of applied research.



"Love, affection, warmth, and ebullience should all be delivered unconditionally. The more of these, the more positive the atmosphere, and the more secure your child will be. The more secure he is, the more he will explore and find mastery. But praise is an altogether different matter. Praise your child contingent on a success, not just to make him feel better. Wait until he fits the little peg man into the car before applauding. Also, grade your praise to fit the accomplishment. Do not overpraise and treat the peg man achievement as if it were an amazing accomplishment. Save your expressions of highest praise for more major accomplishments, like saying his sister's name for the first time and catching the wobbling football. To praise your child regardless of how well he does, to fail to grade your praise, is to render your child helpless."

Although I have no children at home, I found some interesting information in this book. It did seem to follow more of a textbook/workbook format and could have been considerably shorter. The primary focus is children aged 8-11.

A great book about teaching your kids competence and helping them take the right amount of responsibility in their lives. Teaches them to take control of what they can fix and accept the things they can't.

I thought it'd be fun to just go ahead and skip all the baby parenting books and read ones I won't be able to use for a few years...this is a practical and science-based method of encouraging your child to be optimistic (not in a Pollyanna way, more in a I-can-cope-with-adversity way). It also some tips for the early years.

This book is intended for parents. Each strategy includes multiple examples and practice activities.

Read this so many years ago and I think of the children it helped. The reason I gave this a good score was because it has a few effective activities in it that I can use at any given moment. As a special ed teacher - many of my students have a variety stressors upon them that are a barrier to me even trying to teach them. However, some of these strategies were presented in such a way that it even got them laughing. Also have 2 copies so I can lend 1 out - - did have 3.

I found myself liking this a lot more than I expected. In particular I like how he debunks the Pollyanna mindset and explains why focusing on self-esteem can be so damaging. He then provides the standard cognitive behavioral therapy tools in a way that could be used for children. The edition I listened to felt a bit dated so I'd be curious to hear an update on how well the interventions are working at preventing depression.