Book - All Birds Have Anxiety by Kathy Hoopmann

Life as a bird can be stressful! From worrying about airplanes, windows, and getting enough worms to eat, it is clear that birds can be anxious beings. Through a light-touch, quizzical depiction of bird behaviour, All Birds Have Anxiety uses colourful images and astute explanations to explore with gentle humour what it means to live with anxiety day-to-day, and how to begin to deal with it. 

With colourful bird photography and light-hearted, witty narrative, All Birds Have Anxiety portrays what anxiety feels like in an accessible, relatable way. It frames complex feelings through avian behaviour, helping children to understand anxiety as something to explore, rather than fear. Built to foster empathy and self-awareness, this sturdy hard-cover book is a go-to for parents, educators, and therapists looking to support anxious children with warmth and clarity.

Why You’ll Love This Book

• Makes the invisible experience of anxiety visible through birds’ behavior.
• Witty, light-hearted style that softens a heavy topic.
• Empowers children to recognise and manage anxious feelings.
• Encourages compassion and empathy in peers.
• Helpful conversation starter for emotional wellbeing.
  

Who This Book Is For

• Children living with anxiety.
• Parents supporting anxious kids at home.
• Teachers promoting mental health awareness.

Click here to view other Kathy Hoopmann books. 

From the author Kathy Hoopmann: 

This book has been eight years in the making… well, it grew in the back of my mind over that time anyway. In 2009, when All Dogs Have ADHD came out, a psychologist who had helped me research ADHD urged me to write next about anxiety. “A huge portion of my patients, both adults and children have some sort of anxiety related issue,” he said. At the time I knew nothing about anxiety and had no personal experience with it, so I didn’t pursue the concept. Jump forward eight years and during that time, I have encountered numerous people with a whole variety of anxiety issues. I have seen adults crippled with it and know children gasping for breath because of it. It disrupts lives, as many cannot manage regular school or office hours. It strains friendships and hurts families. As I began to research more for this book, I knew that I wanted to deal with two main issues. First, it was vital to explain how debilitating an anxiety disorder can be. It is far too easy to dismiss symptoms by believing they can’t be too bad, ‘as everyone gets anxious sometimes’. Anxiety Disorders are NOT just being a bit anxious. So I spend a lot of time trying to get the reader to have empathy for the extent of the problem. But I also wanted this to be an optimistic book. Anxiety does not have to rule a person’s life forever and there are many proven and tried techniques and steps that can be used to alleviate the worst of the symptoms. I have included as many of them as I could, hoping that through them, the reader can find joy when facing the future.

As an Anxiety Disorder is often found alongside other difficulties, All Birds Have Anxiety is printed in the dyslexie font that has been designed with every letter unique so that when the letters are flipped or rotated they do not blur with other letters. For a person with dyslexia, this can help alleviate one extra stress in their lives. 

It was a labour of love to find all the bird images for this book.  Who knew that little beaks could be so expressive! I am particularly thankful to my brother and his wife, Martin and Pauline Oldfield, for allowing me to use some of their wonderful photography.  Check out pages 20 (Martin), 34 (Pauline), 40 (Pauline) and 63 (Martin).

In brief, I pray that All Birds Have Anxiety will bring understanding and hope to the millions of people worldwide who struggle daily with various Anxiety Disorders.