89 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't get mad, get busy, February 24, 2002
This review is from: Don't Rant & Rave on Wednesdays!: The Children's Anger-Control Book (Hardcover)
This 61-page picture book contains simple language easily read by first and second graders (on a par with Dr. Suess), but its sophistication about children's anger will keep them coming back until they are approaching middle school.
The premise is simple: Everyone gets angry--young people, old people, tall people, short people, fat people, thin people, nice people, mean people, men people, women people, boy and girl people. Including, of course, kids reading this book. When people get angry they do silly things--shake their fists, jump up and down, rant and rave, call bad names, throw things.
The book explains anger as the feeling we have when we are really annoyed or really mad. Anger, children learn here, affects their thinking, excites emotions, makes muscles tense. Kids learn why people get angry (it happens more easily when they don't fell well, or are in a grumpy mood, when someone calls a bad name, makes fun, pushes, hits or breaks a favorite toy). People can get mad at themselves, too--because they stub a toe, bump their head, dent their new bike, lose their lunch money or forget their homework. It also happens often--up to 12 times a day.
When people are angry, they do funny things. If someone laughs at them, they get angrier, lose control, hit and sometimes become so enraged, they even kill another person. Being so angry can actually make people sick.
About halfway through this book, the author notes that in order to become productive and happy, kids should avoid being angry. This section begins with the recognition that anger is often inappropriate. No one would consider it funny, for example, for the President of the U.S. to get so angry that he started screaming and yelling on national television. Feeling angry can be harmful. People who rant and rave get into more fights, are more apt to lie, cheat and steal, drop out of school and get sick or use drugs.
It's not good, either, to blame oneself for others' anger. They are responsible for themselves. We are responsible for ourselves. And we can quickly change from feeling okay to feeling angry, which in turn produces physical reactions, including tense muscles. It's like "speeding down the highway at one hundred miles per hour" in a car without a steering wheel.
The book's final 18 pages provide anger-control methods. "Before you race out of control," Moser writes, "put on the brakes. Give yourself time to calm down by counting to ten slowly. If you still feel upset, keep on counting." Staying calm, the book tells kids, will help them to think more clearly, listen to their thoughts and control their behavior. Reading a joke book can kids laugh, which creates good brain chemicals, which in turn kill pain. The author also advises kids to channel their anger to good uses: draw a picture, write something, clean a room, wash dishes, straighten a closet, take a walk or a hot bath. These exercises can reduce anger. (But hitting a punching bag, playing football or other violent activities won't.)
This book teaches kids how to develop self-control. Alyssa A. Lappen
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