Speak Up and Get Along!: Learn the Mighty Might, Thought Chop, and More Tools to Make Friends, Stop Teasing, and Feel Good About Yourself

I've used "Speak Up and Get Along" as an in-class textbook for my Karate students, both children and adults, with great success.

The simple lessons and role-play exercises are easy to understand, and simple to use, even with children who are just starting to read. The organization of the book, using various types of birds as images to illustrate an entire suite of social skills, is very helpful as well -- the tools of the Blue Jay are all about being assertive when you need to. I've recommended this book to a number of my professional colleagues, many of whom are using it with their students (and children) as well.

A useful companion volume is "Sticks and Stones", also by Scott Cooper. It shares the same basic structure, with additional explanations, scripts for parents/teachers, and additional role-plays.

A word about the role-plays: be prepared to practice with them several times to really internalize the skills involved. Running through them once or twice and then just moving on to the next thing is won't get you very far in acquiring usable skills from the text. Practice with them over and over, just as you would to learn a new martial arts technique. Don't confuse understanding the various tools here with the ability to actually use them -- that takes dedicated practice.

I'm impressed at the tools available in this book. It is very well-written and put together in an easy format. It has boosted my kids' (age 9) self confidence. I love how the author covers tone of voice and body language as well as verbal tools.

Great book!

I am so glad I took a chance on this little book! What a gold mine. My 8-year old son and 12-year old daughter highly recommend it, as do I (I’m 45). My son was being teased for being small for his age and a little hard to understand (tools 11, 12, and 14 were spot-on and help a good deal). My daughter is having trouble making friends at her new school and feels there must be something wrong with her or she wouldn’t be having such a hard time (the section on making and keeping friends and tool 19, the thought chop, is helping her work through this). I agree with the other reviewers who said it’s a helpful refresher for parents as well. The writing is simple and funny, and the examples, which are mostly school-related, are great. My second grader can read this book himself. We all read the book and practiced the strategies together. This book can help open avenues of communication between you and your kids and give them the tools and confidence to handle common problems.

Purchased for an 11 y.o. girl at Christmas \who's been having trouble standing up for herself in social situations. She read it cover-to-cover the next day and has had the guts to tell off 2 peers giving her trouble since. Now her uncle (41) wants to read it!

This book helped my 12 year old daughter figure out how to act and react to situations in Junior High. She enjoyed it and employs the strategies it suggests.

I was looking for something for very young kids 4-5 years old. This is more geared towards school age kids.I think its a pretty good book for maybe 7-8 year olds. Nothing groundbreaking in here just simple tactics on how to use words and what words to use in different situations.

The communication skills in this book are organized into chapters that relate to qualities of different birds. The author did a fine job of explaining why the bird-analogies were chosen as the theme for this book. I think the bird-analogies makes the teaching of these social skills a whole lot more interesting and fun. Also, the analogies may help students remember and apply the skills better.

My fifth and sixth graders could not get enough of this book. The animal anaologies helps to make the book easier to understand for children as well.

I really like the bird analogies. It’s a fun read. I’m currently reading it with my 4 and 7 year olds. Even my 4 year old is able to grasp the concepts and both children have been practicing what we’ve learned. It’s really neat to watch them pick up on these kinds of skills!!

It is hard to come up with a good retort to an unskillful conversation in the midst of what is happening. This book has lots of ideas for brainstorming things to say ahead of time. Helps kind kids stand up for their friends, not just the kids being pushed around.