Cynthia Cliff – illustratör

A 2024 NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite Winner.Your amygdala works hard to protect you from danger, but what about when it gets things wrong? This amusing character-driven narrative helps children learn to calm their amygdala and control their fight-flight-freeze impulses.The amygdala is the brain's alarm system that alerts for danger, but sometimes it gets things wrong and needs help calming down. In this picture book, young readers receive kid-friendly information about the amygdala from the amygdala, how it can sometimes get confused, and simple ideas to calm and train it. The amygdala in How to Train Your Amygdala makes complicated concepts accessible to children so they can understand their bodies, practice impulse control, and boost their self-regulation. "You have probably never seen me before, but I am right here in your brain. There is an amygdala in everyone’s brain. It’s true! All humans have one. Many other animals do too." Throughout the book, the amygdala and the reader practice anxiety-calming and mindfulness strategies such as deep breathing, visualization, and progressive relaxation. With anxiety on the rise among children, learning how to calm the amygdala is a critical life skill. Additional content at the back of the book includes an amygdala's training playbook for kids and more information for adults to help reinforce the book's message.