Today I Am Mad: (Anger Management, Kids Books, Baby, Childrens, Ages 3 5, Emotions) (Self-Regulation Skills Book 1)

In Gordon's "Today I am Mad," the protagonist is a boy, and his classmates ALL seem to be boys for some reason. Does this daycare not allow girls? Does the author believe girls don't fight over toys? It's weird.The conclusion is also kind of weird - two boys have a fight, our protagonist hugs one of them, and... that's the end. No one apologizes for throwing things or storming off, no one tries to get the conflicting parties to work together, and there is no resolution. We don't even know what happens to the other boy.This book is fine, but I much prefer Daniel Tiger's "I'm Feeling Mad," "When I Feel Angry" by Spelman, and "A Little Spot of Anger" by Alber. These other books provide specific strategies for identifying and managing anger, reiterate the lessons across multiple situations, and portray both boys and girls. I'd recommend any or all of those instead.

This book explains about anger! Such a simple emotion! One that can be so intense especially for young children who are learning how to express and control their emotions.Tom is playing with a train engine that Josh wants to play with. The simple solution is to take the engine away! Only that’s not a nice thing to do.Josh realizes that Tom is sad about his behavior taking the train engine away. Josh isn’t a “bad” boy he just wanted to play with the engine. He realizes he hurt Tom and says he’s sorry.I like how this conflict is resolved with Josh asking for forgiveness by saying he’s sorry. I also like how the boys end up playing with the train engine together.The second encounter in this book is when Josh would like a cookie and his mother says no! Supper will be ready soon.The author did a nice job of outlining some tools that Josh uses to manage his angry emotions.1. Counting to 102. Breathing deeply3. Kicking a ball aroundWhen his father comes home that night to read him a bedtime story, Josh gets positive feedback about managing his emotions.Josh sees 2 boys at school the next day who were fighting. He consoles Jordan with a hug until Jordan feels better. Josh remembers how his parents would give him a hug and he would feel better.Not all children may be into hugging but I think the point of this part of the story is that Josh noticed that another boy got hurt. Obviously the caregiver, parent or reader of the story can talk about other ways of comforting a child who has hurt feelings. My grandson is the type who would give a hug to another little boy!The book isn’t too long but the points it makes are good.The three short stories with the sharing of the train engine, the forbidden cookies and the other boy who gets hurt are short enough to make an impact on a young listener.The lessons learned hopefully will be good tools for any young child to carry out in their daily life.Lastly I thought the illustrations were well done and captured the heart of each story. This book I feel is appropriate for the age group of about 3 to 5 years old.

Today I am Mad by Michael Gordon has this classification on its Amazon page: Anger Management, Kid’s Books, Baby, Childrens, Ages 3 5, Emotions. So why am I reading this? There are three reasons. I like to occasionally see what materials are available for learners just starting out. I am sure all of you do also. As I watch TV feel-good shows, parents show up to discuss the importance of teaching materials young people can access. What books can parents buy for their children that are appealing and deliver a positive social message? If you (any reader out there) are serious, said concerned person must dip their toes in the pool of available resources for young people. For me, that includes books. It is not enough to look only at book covers. You might think you can judge a book by its cover or even in the first few pages. If I had done that with this book, my review would have differed from the one you see printed here. Read the books you pontificate on. (I am a contrarian about ending sentences with a preposition). So much for reason one and I can comfortably descend from my soapbox rant about people who post reviews without reading the book.Reason two is much shorter. I received an author alert that the book was available; I had previously posted a review about another of the author’s works. Reason three is the shortest yet. For one day, the book was free. It is now USD 2.99 but can be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited membership.I liked the page at the beginning with the “This Book Belongs To” and then space for the young owner to fill in name and other desired data. First, it probably involves the parent and gives practice in printing. Second, my young ones have a pride of ownership and knowing that something belongs to them. That does not contradict the message of sharing central to the book. Ownership and sharing of community toys are not contradictory ideas.Pages One through Four set the scene between Josh and Tom. Although Josh initially “wins,” I like Page Five when the setting becomes somber; the weather seen through the window even seems sad. Josh and Tom play well together for a while until Josh returns home for the “cookie” incident. Then there is a chance for Josh to review his counting skills as his emotions subside. Josh learns that exercise makes him feel better. When Dad returns home, the importance of parental approval and support is illustrated.So much for practice. Now it is time to export Josh’s skills to other societal settings. Josh returns to school, notices a conflict situation in the making, and decides to help others with hugs. This is the point where this book ends, and my disagreement starts.I suggest that physical contact, demonstrated in this book through hugs, can be culturally inappropriate. I rejected this approach when I was as young as the huggee. I reject it at my advanced age as the hugger. This book got all the way to the last page before the hug happened. I was ready to give this a thumbs-up five Amazon star rating until the hug. For now, because I liked the illustrations, I give it four stars.On the positive side, because this book put the hugs on the last page, there is an opportunity to expand the book with additional pages that could rescue Josh and friends from unwanted physical intimacy.

This book was written well and had good photos. It also taught a good lesson. Anger is hard to control sometimes and learning to manage it can be difficult for children but even adults. It started with a small lesson on sharing. He didn't want to share his toy but he also didn't want the other child to be upset. So in the end they were both happy playing together. He was also upset about his mother telling him he couldn't have a cookie. He learned to manage that by meditating and self regulation. At the end he saw a boy that was hurt and thought hugging him would make him better. I've never been huge on hugging but some people are. For this boy it made him feel better so why not? Good read and good lesson for toddlers.

I read it in school with a special class I teach. They enjoyed it. Thanks for the book.

Bad quality

I didn't like it. I read it because I was considering giving it to one of my Grand Children, but no.I was not a good book for a kid.They wouldn't be able to understand their emotion from reading this book.

18 PAGES;A l'école, le petit Josh est en colère.Le petit Tom est en train de jouer avec le jouet favori de Josh.Et Josh veut ce jouet...------------------Un joli livre qui montre à l'enfant comment se calmer grâce à quelques exemples de situations...C'est agréable et clair à lire.PS : à noter que tous les enfants n'aiment pas toujours les calins (de consolation) lorsqu'ils sont en colère...

Every child needs to have some way to express their feelings this book gives some good ideas to help them do so.