Diary of a Brilliant Kid: Top Secret Guide to Awesomeness

I've just finished 'Diary of a Brilliant Kid' and WOW! 😊✨ I absolutely LOVE it! So much so, that I've already started making resources and display materials to use with my class! We will be reading it together as of tomorrow and I CANNOT wait! I can't thank you enough for writing such a funny, relatable, heart - warming and inspiring book...again! The activities included within the book are simply brilliant too and I know my class will get so much from them! As a teacher, it's so rare to come across books that will genuinely inspire and impact the lives of pupils (especially at the stage I have - 10 and 11 year olds have selfies to take and YouTube videos to watch!) which is why I cannot recommend this book enough! It radiates positivity, celebrates uniqueness, creativity and being YOU! As well as tackling some tricky areas like growth mindset, flow, mental health and happiness. Child friendly. Adult friendly. Not patronising. Expertly done! Like with 'Shine', I feel enthused, excited and ready to take on the world and I can't wait to share that feeling with my class! So a MASSIVE thank you to the authors from me! Obviously a life long fan 😎👏🏼✨ - Nicola 😊✨

I read this book myself and quickly realised how important it could be to influencing the lives of so many children. We bought a class set for our school and are currently using it to support pupils who lack self esteem. To top it off the author himself Gavin Oattes came to the school to address the children at the start of mental health week. Gavin Oozes fun, facts and fundamental concepts that will set children up for life. He highlights the importance of making wise choices, supporting others and using your inner super hero to become totally Awesome! I can’t recommend this book highly enough! We are who we make ourselves!

My son went to high school in August. He couldn’t wait. Totally ready for it after a really successful time in primary. From week 2 we noticed an issue with him. He wasn’t himself. Totally down, withdrawing himself from friends at break and lunch,unenthusiastic about everything. We put it down to the transition and doubled down our efforts to support him and show kindness and love. Nothing really improved. He was miserable. He hated it. There were so many reasons but mostly the sheer size of his school and various behaviour issues. He felt unsafe out of class and wasn’t learning in class. We got to October Holidays. Great. We got our son back. Awesome. 👍 When it was time to go back to school he had a series of pretty major meltdowns. Total panic attacks. We decided to take him out for his sake. His mental health was in the gutter. He was off for nearly two weeks but I kept him busy. See this book? Diary of a Brilliant Kid. It was a godsend. Thank you. He’s a brilliant kid. I’ve been giving him daily tasks to keep him going and one of them is time to read and complete activities in the book. (Which he won’t let me see by the way!😂) Sod it though. I love it. I love the positive effect it has on him. I love how enthusiastic he’s becoming again and I love that we’re getting him back. Honestly, your book has helped more than I can say. He’s moved school and he’s now happy. Thank you. 👏

Great little book to come back to again and again ... only wish it was slightly bigger format or spiral bound so my son could hold it open more easily to write on the pages.

Bought this for my son after reading a review on Twitter. My stepson has had a hard few years and finds it difficult to manage his emotions appropriately (he's 7). He can read this book himself and loves the idea that it's his special diary. Incidentally I bought a similar book for my panicy daughter and it's nowhere near as good as this one. I know this as my son hasn't put his down and keeps laughing out loud. He's not usually one to read on his own but he loves the humour of this and the idea that he's looking after his mental health.

Bought this for my son whose confidence needed a little boost. Read it myself first to see what it was all about.....such a great book with fabulous strategies and ideas to build children’s confidence and more importantly, resilience. I’ve gave it over to him now and he’s walking around with it wherever he goes. He’s really enjoying the humour and, from a parent’s perspective, he’s gaining life lessons without even knowing it. I’m now half way through ‘shine’ which is another of Gavin and Andy’s book but for the grown ups this time.

I’m not sure what more to say than the title but my 9 year old daughter was struggling with self confidence and anxiety after a difficult school year with friendships etc & actually has always struggled in some way with those things and this book was like magic to her. Don’t even question buying this book, just order it. Even if the transformation isn’t right away, the lessons in it are life long and so won’t ever be a waste of money.

I know lots of people rave about the book but I’m not one.... sorry! I feel like it talks a lot about death which isn’t needed. The front part where is says to draw the worst death possible for someone if they read this without permission... really...?!! For me it has a negative overtone, telling kids how hard life will be. We only got about 10 pages in and I stopped, I will spend some time and read to the end but for now, I wouldn’t buy again.