When I Feel Angry - Cornelia Maude Spelman

[Guest review by Fabida]

Book Review: ‘When I Feel Angry’

Anger is an emotion that affects everyone, across continents, male and female, young and old, making it pretty much a universal feeling.

But like Cornelia Maude Spelman shows us in her book ‘When I Feel Angry’, it is how we respond to that emotion that makes us the person we are. This is an excellent book to help young children understand this anger and learn to deal with it.

Title: When I Feel Angry (Part of the ‘The Way I Feel’ series)

Author: Cornelia Maude Spelman

Illustrator: Nancy Cote

Plot: A little bunny finds that a lot of things make her angry, and when she feels angry she wants to do and say hurtful things. But she also learns that feeling something and doing those things are completely different and that she should take care not to hurt others in the process.

Review: This is a lovely little book, perfect for preschoolers. I would go so far as to say that even adults like us could gain quite a bit from reading this!!

Little Bunny first learns to identify the emotion called anger and she finds that many different events can trigger anger in her. All sorts of scenarios are covered – things that are out of our control can make us angry, as can something someone does or says to us, or sometimes even we can make ourselves angry when we get frustrated!

Nancy Cote has done a brilliant job of expressing Little Bunny’s facial expressions, especially since pictures are what’ll get to the child more than words. The text is in first person and in simple English, which will help children to express their feelings clearly, for example: ‘I feel angry when I have to stop my game’. This will be especially useful for children prone to tantrums, who can’t seem to use words to say exactly what they want.

The book also provides positive ways to control anger, and to curb violent impulses like wanting to hit someone. In the kind of world we have today, these lessons can’t be underestimated. My son gets angry quite frequently, but when I remind him of the book, he does make an effort to calm down (though some explosions are inevitable!!).

I would whole heartedly recommend this book to all mothers, however old your child is, and whether they have an anger problem or not. Learning to control your anger and express your feelings are skills that everyone needs and your child will be grateful to you long after the bedtime book reading sessions are done.

This review first appeared as a guest post on The Mom Views.

[This review is a part of the Children's Day Celebration Challenge hosted at ALOP]

- Fabida