Product Description

This Caldecott Honor book tells the tale of Sophie, a preschooler who gets very mad when her sister snatches her toy. The simple story and vibrant illustrations explore how Sophie reacts to -- and recovers from -- her heated emotions, offering a springboa

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61452 in Books
• Brand: SCHOLASTIC BOOKS (TRADE)
• Published on: 2004-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

Features

• Made with the Best Quality Material with your child in mind.
• Top Quality Children's Item.

From Publishers Weekly
Raw zigzags of color convey a girl's rage in this compassionate volume, which proposes a cure for anger. Sophie's temper flares when her sister demands a turn playing with a favorite stuffed gorilla. Matters worsen when Sophie's mother passes judgment ("It is her turn now, Sophie") and Sophie trips over a toy truck in the resulting tug-of-war. Infernal shades of orange, yellow and red liken Sophie to a shuddering volcano; a gray cat with jagged fur wisely gets out of her way. With the "PABAM!" of a slammed door, the girl races outside. "She runs and runs and runs until she can't run anymore. Then, for a little while, she cries." Gradually, a calmer Sophie begins noticing birds and ferns. When she returns home, relaxed again, her sister has abandoned the gorilla in favor of a tabletop puzzle. With minimal text, Bang (Common Ground; Ten, Nine Eight) gives a realistic account of embattled siblings and prescribes self-imposed solitude. Edgy illustrations with roilingly patterned foreground shapes and looming, dark backgrounds convey Sophie's inner violence; in particular, a quiet image of a ghostly gray beech against a midnight-blue sky is reminiscent of Van Gogh's Japanese-print-inspired scenes. Bang's evocatively illustrated book suggests no quick fixes; she treats childhood emotions with respect. Ages 2-7.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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. Floorboards slant diagonally across two pages, echoing the agitation of the siblings as they engage in a tug of war. A close-up of Sophie's face with blue eyes blazing and pigtails flying is set against a fire-red background. Bang gives the ranting girl a huge red shadow. On the next spread, Sophie releases a "ROAR" so enormous that she seems to shrink off the page. The trees, outlined in bright red, mimic the girl's anger, then bow down as she passes by stooped and weeping, and finally sport bright-green outlines as she returns home cheered and hopeful. Sophie, like a missing piece, rejoins her family as the puzzle they are working on is completed. Pair this excellent story with Dorothea Lachner's Andrew's Angry Words (North-South, 1995).
Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community-Technical College, CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Jeanne B. Pinder
...an elegant and thought-provoking book for young children learning how to deal with emotions.

Customer Reviews

We both love it
My toddler son loves this book and he is a very mild-mannered boy. That said, he does get angry, because he's human and poor Sophie's anger is lovingly accepted in this book. We do not have a beautiful beech tree to run to, but letting the world comfort Sophie is something that really appeals to my happy city boy. We also love the illustrations. Caldecott knows what they're doing.

When Sophie gets angry...she runs away!
This is NOT a good book to teach kids how to handle anger. It is NOT a good idea to TEACH KIDS TO RUN AWAY from their anger and situation. This is not based on good psychology.

Small children are very literal, and they are not going to get any other message from this book other than to run away. This book was not well researched, and I cannot believe it won any awards, much less a Caldecott.

As a physician and a mother, I must give this 2 thumbs down.

Important topic--but bad example
My wife and I liked the concept of a book about anger. However, we've pulled this book from our children's reading list. The reason is this. Sophie gets angry when her sister takes a toy from her. The mother supports the taking saying that it is Sophie's sister's turn. That's okay.

But then what Sophie does to deal with her anger is "She runs!" Sophie runs away from home. "She runs and runs and runs until she can't run anymore." She runs into a forest.

Unfortunately for us we don't live in a secluded, safe, forested area. We live in suburbs where there are cars moving about and people we don't know. So giving an example of a child running away from home doesn't work for us and we cannot recommend this book.