When I feel angry

Title: When I feel angry

Author: Cornelia Maude Spelman

Type or emotional/crisis issue addressed: anger /conflict resolution

Year of Publication: 2004
Publisher and Location: Albert Whitman & Company
# ISBN-10: 0807588970
# ISBN-13: 978-0807588970
Target Age Level: 4-8
# of Pages: 24
Quality of Illustrations: excelent
Brief Summary:
It's hard to be a bunny. Sometimes a bunny feels angry--especially if someone is teasing or if Mom is paying more attention to the new baby in the family. But there are things a bunny can do to keep anger from taking over--exercise, rest, cry, or even ask for help. This gentle book puts an adorable bunny in a variety of situations that preschool or grade-school children can relate to. Instead of acting out, the bunny and her friends find constructive ways to deal with their anger. The illustrations are comical and gentle. In a note to parents, the author, a social worker, explains that it's important to let children know that they can't avoid their feelings but that they can avoid acting in bad ways. The note also includes advice to parents on setting good examples when dealing with negative emotions.
Personal Comments/Biases, and/or Things to Consider When Using This Book With Children:
It provides good ideas on how to feel better and what to do when angry and offers alternatives to unacaptable behaviors.

Activity: Read out load to children

Posted by Fátima Vera

What Every Kid Should Know

Author: Jonah Kalb & David Viscott, M.D.
Type or emotional/crisis issue(s) addressed: Parent/child relationship problems, feelings, making friends, self-esteem, divorce
Year of Publication: 1976
Publisher & Location: Boston: Houghton Mifflin
ISBN#: 0395629837 
Target Age Level: Late elementary, junior high
# of Pages: 127
Quality of Illustrations: some simplistic sketches added throughout
Brief Summary: Discusses the problems of growing up and gives suggestions on coping with various emotions, understanding oneself, getting along with others, and dealing with parents.
Personal Comments/Biases, and/or Things to Consider When Using This Book With Children: Written in 1976, so may be a bit outdated.

Activity: Have the student compile a "Bill of Rights for Kids" like was done in the book. He/she makes a list of rights that are important to him/her (examples include "right to pick my own friends," "right to privacy," "right to my own opinion). Discuss each one and why that is important. Talk about how the student could discuss these rights with his/her parents, especially when they disagree.

Misery Moo

Author: Jeanne Willis & Tony Ross
Type or emotional/crisis issue(s) addressed: Depression, sadness
Year of Publication: 2003
Publisher & Location: New York: Henry Holt & Co.
ISBN#: 0805076727 
Target Age Level: Lower elementary
# of Pages: 24
Quality of Illustrations: Great
Brief Summary: A pessimistic cow is so resistant to a lamb's attempts to cheer her up that the previously happy-go-lucky lamb starts to feel just like the miserable cow. In the end, the cow is so happy that the lamb cares about her that she cheers up. Both learn to be happy with each other, even when it rains.
Personal Comments/Biases, and/or Things to Consider When Using This Book With Children: none

Activity: Have the child make a list or draw things that make him/her happy, sad, mad, etc. Talk about how he/she can feel different emotions, even in the same situation.

When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry…

Type of emotional/crisis issues addressed: ANGER

Author/Authors: Molly Bang

Year of publication: 1999

Publisher & Location: Scholastic, Inc

Book title: When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry…

ISBN #: 0-439-59845-1

Age Level: Lower Elementary

# of pages: 33

Quality of illustrations: bright and attractive

Brief Summary: Sophie is playing with her pet gorilla when her sister comes and takes it. Sophie becomes very upset so she kicks and screams. The book continues to describe how she feels when she is angry. Sophie then runs into the woods and begins to calm down until she is no longer mad. Once she feels better she returns home and she isn’t angry anymore.

Post reading activity:

1. While reading the story have the children use musical instruments to be loud while Sophie is angry. As Sophie begins to calm down, have the children use their instruments quieter and quieter for each page until Sophie is calm. After the story talk about the difference in how angry sounded versus calm.
2. Talk about what makes kids angry and how do they act when they are angry. Talk about what calms them down and makes them feel better.
3. Refer to the page where Sophie feels like a volcano. Brainstorm different ways anger can be described (a sunny day turning into a storm, turning into the Incredible Hulk, a comet falling from the sky and hitting the earth, etc). Give each child a piece of paper with a thermometer on it with 5 sections. In each section starting with the bottom, draw a picture of the visual of building towards anger. For example, if anger is like a storm, the first section would have a sunny day. The second one would have a sun partially covered in a cloud. The third one would only be dark clouds. The fourth section would have dark clouds with rain and the final section would have dark clouds with rain and lightning. Then have each child draw or write things they can do when their thermometer is getting higher.

At Daddy's on Saturdays

Author: Linda Walvoord Girard

Type or emotional/crisis issue(s) addressed: Divorce

Year of Publication: 1987

Publisher & Location: Albert Whitman & Company: Niles, Illinois

ISBN#: 0-8075-0475-0

Target Age Level: Lower Elementary

# of Pages: 32

Quality of Illustrations: Each set of pages has an illustration that depicts the words on the page. Not very colorful, and a little dated, but the illustrations portray the emotions of the characters well.
Brief Summary: Although her parents' divorce causes her to feel anger, concern, and sadness, Katie discovers that she can keep a loving relationship with her father even though he lives apart from her.

Personal Comments/Biases, and/or Things to Consider When Using This Book With Children: This book portrays the father/daughter relationship nicely. The girl lives with her mother but spends her weekends with her dad. The parents in the book did a good job explaining why they were getting divorced but that it did not change how they felt about her. May be difficult reading to children of divorced parents whose fathers are not an active part of their lives.

Activities:

1. Using a poster or paper that portrays a variety of emotions, have the students identify which emotions Katie is feeling after each day, and compare it to how they felt.
   
2. All together, make lists of what things changed for Katie and what things stayed the same. Have the kids make their own lists.

When I Feel Sad

Author: Cornelia Maude Spelman

Type or emotional/crisis issue(s) addressed: Sadness, Basic Emotions

Year of Publication: 2002

Publisher & Location: Albert Whitman & Company, Morton Grove, IL

ISBN#: 0-8075-8899-7

Target Age Level: Pre-K

# of Pages: 22

Quality of Illustrations: Good

Brief Summary: A young guinea pig explains situations that make her sad, how it feels to be sad and what can make her feel better

Personal Comments/Biases, and/or Things to Consider When Using This Book With Children: Describes sadness in a way that young children can understand it.

Activities: Talk about what makes us sad, whom we can go to when we are sad and what we can do to be happy again. Go do one of those things.

When Sophie Gets Angry -- Really, Really Angry

Author: Molly Bang

Type or emotional/crisis issue(s) addressed: Anger

Year of Publication: 1999

Publisher & Location: Scholastic, Inc.

ISBN#: 0439213193

Target Age Level: preschool, lower elementary

Quality of Illustrations: Excellent

Brief Summary: From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-Sophie is playing with her stuffed gorilla when her sister wrests it from her, knocking her to the floor. When their mother agrees that it is her sister's turn to play with the toy, Sophie becomes so angry that "She wants to smash the world to smithereens." She kicks, screams, and eventually runs into the woods where she climbs a huge beech tree, looks out over the water, and is comforted by the "wide world." Calm, she returns home ready to participate in family life. The text is appropriately brief, for it is Bang's double-page illustrations, vibrating with saturated colors, that reveal the drama of the child's emotions.

All Feelings Are OK: It's What You Do With Them That Counts

Author: Lawrence E. Shapiro, Ph.D; Illustrated by Jille Mandel

Type or emotional/crisis issue(s) addressed: variety, basic emotions as well as others

Year of Publication: 1993

Publisher & Location: The Center for Applied Psychology, Inc.; King of Prussia, PA

ISBN#: 1-882732-04-9

Target Age Level: Upper and Lower elementary

# of Pages: 100

Quality of Illustrations: It is coloring book-style. Illustrations have questions and a spot to answer them at the bottom. The illustrations also allow the children to draw in faces of how people might feel in different situations.

Brief Summary: A coloring book that allows children to draw in emotions on faces and answer questions at the end. Eg. "How do you feel when the teacher yells at you for passing a note, but you didn't do it?" The child colors in the page and faces, then answers the question, "What can you do about it?"

Personal Comments/Biases, and/or Things to Consider When Using This Book With Children: This coloring book is an invaluable tool to use with children who are trying to figure out their emotions in different situations. It allows them to talk about how they might feel in different situations without someone dictating it for them. It is a good tool to use with kids who are not very verbal, or kids who like to draw.

Activity:
This book is a workbook, so each page is an activity. It is set up for you to easily use the different situations in the book for whatever situation is happening with the child.

My Many Colored Days

Author: Dr. Suess; Paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher

Type or emotional/crisis issue(s) addressed: most emotions, covers all the basic emotions

Year of Publication: 1996

Publisher & Location: Scholastic, Inc.; New York, NY

ISBN#: 0-590-37046-4

Target Age Level: Lower Elementary. Can be used for Upper Elementary as well as with Junior High and High school if used creatively.

# of Pages: 40

Quality of Illustrations: nice, colorful paintings. Almost abstract art.

Brief Summary: Dr. Seuss talks about feelings/emotions as colors in the first person, describing the color and the feeling associated with it.

Personal Comments/Biases, and/or Things to Consider When Using This Book With Children: good book to use for a variety of issues.

Activity:
Have the children draw what color their day today is. Have them then draw what color they think the teacher's day has been (or a peer or a parent). Have the children share the drawings with each other.