The Human Survival Guide
For Kids Who Would Quite Like Some Instructions
Children are taught fractions, punctuation and the names of rivers. At some point somebody should probably mention that they have also been issued a human brain, because they will be taking it everywhere.
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Being human is brilliant. Also confusing.
This is not a course. There is no correct route through it and no test on Friday. Open it anywhere, try an experiment, read a story, learn a skill, or discover another peculiar thing the human mind does when nobody asked it to.
The book moves through thoughts, feelings, attention, memory, friendship, pressure, confidence, rumours, sleep, decisions, mistakes, kindness and the ordinary business of getting through a day with one human brain.
It takes children seriously without asking them to become miniature psychologists. The science is explained carefully, the practical pages are actually practical, and the safety rule stays simple: serious danger is not a solo job. Get a safe adult involved.
A field guide, not a lecture.
A lot of being human, in one backpack.
More than 280 illustrated field-guide pages move between experiments, practical skills, psychology, stories and questions worth asking.
Your brain has tricks
Attention, perception, memory, unwanted thoughts, confidence and the stories a mind adds before the evidence arrives.
Feelings are information
Fear, anger, embarrassment, jealousy, panic and low days, with practical ways to recover enough choice to decide what to do next.
Other humans are complicated
Friends, belonging, boundaries, apologies, peer pressure, gossip, disagreement and the useful art of saying no without writing an essay.
How not to be fooled quite so easily
Rumours, advertising, conformity, authority, false consensus, bad questions, confident claims and why repetition is not evidence.
Problems need handles
How to shrink an overwhelming problem, make a plan, ask for useful help, use checklists, change course and deal with uncertainty.
Braver choices, a kinder world
Curiosity, kindness, responsibility, being wrong, noticing good moments and learning to live without requiring yourself or everybody else to be perfect.
The first 20 pages.
This is the actual book, not a specially polished sample. Read the opening and decide whether you want the rest.
One purchase. Every digital edition.
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One ordinary human brain. Some better instructions.
An illustrated field guide for kids who would quite like to understand what their minds, feelings and other humans are up to.
Buy The Human Survival Guide · £12.99