Dare to Be You: Defy Self-Doubt, Fearlessly Follow Your Own Path and Be Confidently You!

By Author / Illustrator

Matthew Syed, Toby Triumph

Genre

Mental Health & Wellbeing

Age range(s)

Publisher

Hachette Children's Group

ISBN

9781526362377

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

03-09-2020

Synopsis

From the bestselling, award-winning author of You Are Awesome comes the much-anticipated follow-up, Dare to Be You.

What would you dare to try if you stopped worrying about fitting in? If you're the kind of person who thinks: I don't like standing out from the crowd ... I wish I could be more like the cool kids ... There's no point trying to change things ... then this book is for you. Because guess what? There's no such thing as normal.

Drawing examples from sport, science and even business, Dare to Be You empowers young readers to follow their own path, love what makes them different and question the world around them. With You Are Awesome's trademark mix of hilarious text, stylish illustration, personal insights and inspiring real-life examples, including Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai, Matthew Syed introduces children to the power of diverse thinking.

When you stop doubting yourself, embrace change and let your kindness loose, you become your own action hero. This groundbreaking, practical and positive book will help kids develop the inner confidence to grow into happy adults who know - and, more importantly, LIKE - themselves.

Reviews

Dare To Be You is the new book by the bestselling author Matthew Syed. This book enables you to discover the power of diverse thinking to defy self-doubt and develop confidence to be happy with yourself. It helps you to become practical about dealing with the overwhelming sense of anxiety that can often consume you.

I love how this book is an eclectic mix of stories involving sport, science, and business and how these stories take you on a journey that you as a reader could identify with. The character of Kid Doubt is absolutely brilliant because it personifies the thoughts and feelings that are embedded within the conscious of the main character, who is constantly at battle with himself and trying to become the 'norm'. This book dares you to follow your own path and defy what the norm is, making you want to accept and love yourself for being different.

From the moment I turned the first page, the layout stood out as vibrant and engaging. I love the illustrations and the diagrams that help you to visualise the situations and develop strategies to cope and overcome the problems. This book helps you to develop a diverse thinking, which broadens your understanding of a range of situations that could or might have occurred in your life that you can relate to.

This book should be in the reading area or library of Upper Key Stage 2 classrooms. I think by reading this book those children who are self-doubting would be able to seek a further understanding and develop strategies for believing in themselves.

189 pages / Reviewed by Hayley Summerfield, teacher