Customer Reviews

What to Do When Your Temper Flares: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Problems With Anger (What to Do Guides for Kids)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent book to help discuss anger from a kid's perspective, when my logic of "just get over it" obviously doesn't work!

As expected, it took some time to win my 7 year old over - he was angry about having to confront the problem - but he really got into it after a while.

It's not a quick fix - the child still has to do the work and practice the techniques - but it is a great guide to help parents and children deal with anger management at a young age. Especially important is that it puts the responsibility for the emotion on the child's shoulders where it really belongs. The author lets children know she understands what they are thinking but that it is not an excuse for letting anger brew.

Of all of Dawn Huebner's books, I like this one the best! As a therapist this book provides a multi-sensory approach with lots of options and choices that the kids can make in learning to control their anger. I had one child this week really get into the relaxation techniques, and I love the "vacuum cleaner" concept of not getting "sucked in" to anger.

As a retired elementary school teacher, I wish I had had What to Do When Your Temper Flares during my teaching years. What an incredible resource for children and their parents, as well as teachers and anyone else who works with kids. This book gives children the tools they need to deal with anger in a step-by-step way while keeping them engaged in the process of learning. Full of great information and useful strategies, this book is easy for younger children to understand, while remaining interesting to older children and respectful of all. I plan to keep it available for my grandchildren - it's a keeper!

At first my son was really angry that he got this book. He threw it on the floor and walked away! When I finally got him to look at it with me I let him treat it as a workbook. After all, it has spaces for writing and drawing. I also gave him a highlighter and told him to mark things that seemed important. Doing this gave him a sense of ownership and helped him connect with the ideas. It also helps that the material is presented in a way that he could relate to, with lots of questions and fun language. While this book hasn't been a cure-all, it has helped him tremendously. Six months later, he still reads it and talks about (and uses!) the strategies he learned.

A good and well written cognitive behavioral plan to help children and adolescents control their anger and behavior. May be hard to use by children without the guide and motivation of an adult.Excellent material to be used by a psychotherapist. Adults may easily apply these same principles to enhance their own self control.

Just from the intro. written to the parents, I was impressed. It made me feel more at ease about some of my son's issues. I am a former school counselor and I thought the layout of the book was great and it kept my 6 year old's attention (we would do a chapter a night each night before nights out). It gives some great concepts that plant seeds in a child's mind about what is going on when they get angry - even if they can't immediately put them to use. This is a wonderful series - we have tried three of the books.

I've never bothered to write a book review before, but this book promises to be a life changer. I hope others will find it as useful as my daughter and I already have. Dawn Huebner and Bonnie Matthews are spot-on with their examples and illustrations depicting our personal situation. It's almost as if they've been peeking through our windows. Like some of the other reviewers, my daughter pitched the book across the room as soon as I showed it to her, but when I called her bluff and made a move to trash it, she quickly back-pedaled and assured me that she wanted to get better. Once we started working through it, she would take a mocking tone and say something to imply that the author didn't know HER and the very next sentence would speak to her grumble. Dawn nailed it every time and the illustrations were strikingly familiar as well. The book's credibility has risen to a surprising level, though she will never acknowledge it.
The workbook style with humor sprinkled throughout has made the book much more fun for both of us. She likes writing in the book since that is usually considered "bad" behavior. I have two favorite parts. The first is a list in Ch. 3 of "why bothers" that include such gems as "Has anyone ever said, 'I want to be your friend because you are so good at losing your temper'" and "Have you ever fallen asleep with a smile on your face, thinking about all the times you got mad that day?". The second is a caution to parents not to provide the "cool thoughts" for the child as that will only infuriate her more. I've experienced that response many times in the past and now know that it is typical and not unexpected. I do suggest following the method outlined by the author for best results. My daughter and I are simultaneously working on the Dreading Your Bed book to undo 5 months of problems after she saw part of zombie movie at a neighbor's house. It has been equally good, but different enough to keep it fun. We will start the Grumbling book next. If you have a child with a short fuse, get this book - you won't regret it.

My 8-year-old daughter who has a very quick temper loved this book right away. She usually doesn't go for books that I want her to read because it will "help" her with something. But this one was different. She really liked it because she could write in it and draw pictures. She isn't really a reader but went 3/4's of the way through it the first time.
I think it has helped somewhat with her anger, but we are still working on it.It is a good step in the right direction.

My son was showing a lot of anger, and didn't want to talk about it. This book was a great way to approach the subject during a non-angry time. It's very helpful to get a third party involved so remotely. The book was written well for his age - some humor, comic book type pictures, and some ideas that my 8 year old found to be helpful.

When this book was recommended by our child psychologist, I wasn't sure what to expect. It really surprised me that my 7 year old son loved reading it with me. He responded personally to the imagery used to describe anger and self-control. The exercises it provides were completely appropriate for him and he loves tying knots in his string to demonstrate his success with stepping out of anger. Terrific product.