Sometimes the most helpful thing we can do as parents is to parent our children a little less. This humane, thoughtful book turns the latest brain science into valuable practical advice for parents on how to pull back, when to engage and when to let go. Read it. Your children will thank you.

This serious and probing look at how to give our children the right kinds of independence shows us how much power we have to ensure they can function optimally. It is a book about how to make our children more meaningfully independent, and to set ourselves free in the process.

Compelling, revolutionary, and wise, The Thriving Child empowers parents with the courage, the tools, and the mindset to reduce toxic stress, and to foster our child's capacity for resilience, success, and optimal development. Its message-that we should trust kids to have more control over their own lives-is one every parent needs to hear.

The Thriving Child will guide parents to the sweet spot between helicopter and hands-off parenting. Stixrud and Johnson ground their clear and practical advice in cutting-edge research and years of experience working with young kids and teens. An invaluable resource for the thinking parent

Bill Stixrud, the pioneering neuropsychologist, and Ned Johnson, the test-prep guru, have written a battleplan to attack the anxiety that's devouring kids and decimating their native potential. This extraordinary book shines a light into the darkness of test dread, chronic sleeplessness, 24/7 social-media 'beauty pageants' and the full array of stress-induced forces that undermine children. But Stixrud and Johnson do more than identify the demons -- they slay them. Read this incisive, witty, deeply-researched book and help your child bend toward the sunlight of learning and self-directed joy. A must read.

Stixrud and Johnson combine science and compassion to make the case that parental over-control is eroding our kids' confidence, competence and mental health. Accessible, compelling and richly researched, The Thriving Child reveals the clear links between the stressses of competitive schooling and the anxiety and depression that are so widespread in kids today. This urgently-needed book has the potential to revolutionize the way we parent.

If you still have questions about whether or not excessive pressure and a narrow version of success are truly harming our children, The Thriving Child is an absolute must-read. While most books on the impact of stress on child development offer anecdotes and clinical examples, Stixrud and Johnson make it clear that it is now research that explains why kids don't thrive under our current priorities. A healthy child needs a healthy brain. Not only do they produce the evidence that shows why unremitting achievement pressure is toxic to our children, they also show us what the alternative would look like. It is not an overstatement to say that this is one of the most radical and important books on raising healthy, resilient, purpose-driven kids.

Stixrud and Johnson provide compassionate, well-supported suggestions and strategies for parents to help their kids deal with ever-more-competitive academics and extracurriculars By studying the levels of stress and motivation in children, the authors discovered that 'a low sense of control is enormously stressful and that autonomy is the key to developing motivation.' Stixrud and Johnson theorize that a sense of control is the 'antidote to stress,' touching on common stressors for American kids, such as social media, demanding homework, and lack of sleep . . . The authors make a highly persuasive case for how parents can help their children segue from feeling stressed and powerless to feeling loved, trusted, and supported.

Stixrud and Johnson provide in-depth information on how to give your child more control without letting them run amok, discuss ways to reduce parents' stress levels, and emphasize the importance of physical exercise and sufficient sleep. . . . Timeless advice for parents.

If there's one book I'd recommend to parents who are raising children of all ages - this is the book

Important and timely. . . An essential book for parents and educators everywhere.

The book is a fun, witty, boisterous look at what it means to be a brother, to share that history and to make memories. And it’s a nice break from the ‘traditional’ biographic fare, although I suspect its greatest appeal will be, naturally, for brothers.

Packed with hilarious stories but… also a touching take on modern masculinity and family

A memoir focusing on fraternal ties, it is an unconventionally uproarious take on what it is like to have a brother whom you love, but, oddly, have absolutely nothing in common with

A thoughtful street map to self-care that will also look beautiful on your shelf

What comes through is Tara’s grit, determination and instinctive sense that somewhere within education lies her redemption ... There is pain and adversity in this heart-wrenching memoir but ultimately what Tara leaves us with is hope

Marvellous. There is no feeling like discovering a young writer who is springing up fully armed with so much talent

Absolutely superb . . . the last 100 pages were so gripping I could hardly breathe

Tara Westover's beautifully written memoir shines a light on a part of our country that we too often overlook. Her powerful tale—of trying to find a place for herself in the world, without losing her connection to her family or her beloved home—deserves to be widely read. My Mamaw would have been rooting for Tara.

Educated, in showing us the unstoppable power of a young woman determined to make her own decisions and find her own way, is an inspiring and important tale for our times. I am still cheering her on

Unflinching and fascinating

Tragic and uplifting in equal measure

An extraordinary story, beautifully told.

Extraordinary, heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting

This ferociously intelligent memoir is nevertheless full of kindness and insight. In looking beyond the triumphant point where many memoirs would finish, it achieves something far more powerful: Westover demonstrates that leaving a family is not the work of a moment but of a lifetime. Unflinching in confronting the cost of self-preservation, this book is beautiful in its bravery.

A book that I did splits over

Jaw-dropping and so inspiring, everyone should read this book.

A striking story, beautifully told. Tara is an incredible new talent

A punch to the gut, a slow burn, a savage indictment, a love letter: Educated somehow contrives to be all these things at once. Tara Westover guides us through the extraordinary Western landscape of her coming of age, and in clear, tender prose makes us feel what she felt. We give ourselves over to her telling, even when she takes us to the very darkest places a family can dwell. Rarely have I read a book that made me so uncomfortable, so enraged, and at the same time so utterly, entirely absorbed. I loved this book, and this woman.

This remarkable memoir – one of the best I've ever read – is my kind of miracle. The book made me cringe, cry out, cover my eyes, shake with anger, beam with pride, and appreciate the trials that led to my own education. Tara's story will find a place alongside modern classic memoirs, like Wild and The Glass Castle. It's that special

Breathtaking, heart-wrenching, inspirational – I’ve never read anything like this. Educated tells the story of a young girl's escape from violence and emotional prison. It is about the love of family and the pain of family both, the ferocity of the human spirit, and the power of education to change lives. Educated is one of the best books, and Westover one of the most gifted writers, that I've read in a very long time

Powerful, moving, brave, naked and completely at home in its form . . . This is a daughter’s story of how she grew into herself and comes to understand her home.

An incredible memoir of triumph over seemingly endless adversity. The author's ability to write about her experiences in a clear-eyed, nonjudgmental way makes her story a pleasure to read. A study in the power and wonder of resilience

Educated is a wise and deep reflection about surviving one’s family. I bow down to Tara Westover, not only for her marvelous, sentence-by-sentence craftsmanship but also for making sense and meaning from a confounding and hair-raising childhood. This is memoir at its best

Educated is so powerful, so haunting . . . [Westover’s] finely measured, beautifully rhythmic prose conveys the pain of trying to reconcile herself with being estranged from her parents, no matter how delusional they might be. Rejecting any form of binary thinking, she writes with a humaneness that comes partly from having suffered, and the book that grew out of that suffering is a rare and unexpected gift

Tara Westover’s exhilarating coming of age story has only just come out and it’s already a classic … it leaves us readers dazzled and humbled in equal measure

An extraordinary tale

Totally unputdownable

Remarkable

A wonderful read

A beautifully written, lyrical memoir packed full of incident and well worth a read

A beautifully written account…fit to stand alongside the great modern memoirs.

It’s amazing. Couldn’t recommend it enough

A brilliant memoir

Amazing and brilliant.

Vivid evocation of a truly terrifying childhood

Unflinching and fascinating. Educated was one of 2018's standout memoirs.

It's extraordinary and shines a light on the Mormon way of life ... fascinating.

A powerful, jaw dropper of a book

Triumphing over your background like spring triumphs over winter is always fertile territory for memoir. Perhaps the most exciting recently is Tara Westover’s Educated; she had a home life that is frankly astonishing, and how she ends up doing a master’s at Cambridge will make your heart soar.’

Jaw-dropping and so inspiring, everyone should read this book

Tara's journey as she realises her burning desire to know more about the world and escape the influence of her domineering father and brother is a true inspiration.

Absolutely incredible.

An amazing story

If you didn't read this memoir when it first came out, do so, and realise what the fuss was all about

It was one of the most interesting books I've ever read[...] I came away a lot more enlightened and educated myself.

This is a fascinating, breathtaking memoir that you won't be able to put down.

A really remarkable story

Breathtaking

Educated is devastatingly entertaining. Morbidly fascinating. Educated is, without doubt, an essential read.

I found myself forcing onto other people just so I could talk to them about it.

It's brilliant.

In her beautifully written memoir, Westover explores her complex childhood and her heart-breaking decision to leave her family and pursue an education. It is proof of the transformative power of learning and the importance of second chances

I devoured this book. I loved it . . . It's such a good book

It's amazing

Educated is a shocking story of self-invention and the transformative power of hope, tenacity and education.

On audio, I find myself enthralled and convinced.

A truly inspiring listen.