Book Review: Millie Fierce

Author/Illustrator: Jane Manning
Interest Level: Ages 5 and Up

From the Book Jacket: Millie is quiet. Millie is sweet. Millie is mild. But the kids at school don't listen to her. And she never gets a piece of birthday cake with a flower on it. And some girls from her class walk right on top of her chalk drawing and smudge it. And they don't even say they're sorry!

So that's when Millie decides she wants to be fierce! She frizzes out her hair, sharpens her nails and runs around like a wild thing. But she soon realizes that being fierce isn't the best way to get noticed either, especially when it makes you turn mean. So Millie decides to be nice--but to keep a little of that fierce backbone hidden inside her. In case she ever needs it again.

With bright art and an adorable character, it's easy to empathize with Millie. Because everyone has a bad day, once in a while.

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Mollie Fierce is a great example of positive and negative ways to get attention from others. I see children having negative (purposeful) interactions with others on a daily basis in my school. I just love books like this that open up the dialogue and help us get to the root of what's really going on...maybe they are having a bad day, could something be going on at home, are they feeling excluded. Insight! Insight! Millie has a change of heart when one of her actions causes a boy to cry. She reflects and sets on her way to start doing things differently - with kindness. Can't wait to focus on this character trait this year!

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful:

The Zach Rules Series: Zach Apologizes & Zach Gets Frustrated

Author: William Mulcahy
Illustrator: Darren McKee
Interest Level: Ages 5-8 
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing (lots of great resources on their website)

A family counselor and psychotherapist teaches kids how to tame their frustration and how to deliver a proper apology in the first two books of the newly released Zach Rules series.

Zach Apologizes
From the Publisher: In Zach Apologizes, when Zach shoves his little brother to the floor, he knows he did something wrong. Even so, it's hard to apologize - especially when he feels Alex kind of deserved it! With his mom's help, Zach learns the "four-square" apology: (1) say what you did; (2) say how it made the other person feel; (3) say what you could have done instead; and (4) make it up to the person.

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Coaching students when it comes to an apology is so important. Otherwise we'd probably just hear a lot of quick "I'm sorry's." We know that kind of apology does more harm than it does good. Reading Zach Apologizes reopened my eyes to how absolutely critical it is to help kids go deeper when they are making amends. Author William Mulcahy introduces kids to the "four-square" apology. This approach helps kids to be remorseful and have empathy about their actions. 

Kids are very visual so this is really going to stick with them. Cannot wait to teach this to the students and staff! Plus the kids play four-square out at recess so their ears will REALLY perk up.

Make sure to read the WONDERFUL advice in the back of the book for adults. There are some great tips on how to guide children through the four squares. Download a printable copy of the four-square apology HERE.

Zach Gets Frustrated
From the Publisher: In Zach Gets Frustrated, Zach is having a lousy day at the beach. Zach kicks sand, yells angry words, and asks his dad if they can just go home. Instead, his dad teaches him the "frustration triangle" - a simple, three-step approach to get a handle on frustration: (1) name it; (2) tame it; and (3) reframe it. Each book concludes with a short note to adults to help parents, teachers, counselors, and other grown-ups reinforce the book's messages and practice the skills with their kids. 

Why It's On My Bookshelf: This is SUCH a helpful resource to the students in my school. So many kids don't know what to do with their frustration and often times this leads to a negative behavior choice. Zach Gets Frustrated teaches children frustration doesn't need to ruin their day and it can even be channeled into something positive if they take the time to understand it. The frustration triangle technique is a new discovery for me and it's going to definitely have an impact.

The Frustration Triangle

Name it!

Tame it!

Reframe it!

Download a printable copy of the frustration triangle HERE

I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS SERIES ENOUGH! IT'S AWESOME!!!!!

A Link to These Books: 

Lively Elizabeth! What Happens When You Push

Author: Mara Bergman

Illustrated by Cassia Thomas
Interest Level: Ages 4-7

From the Book Jacket: Lively Elizabeth lives up to her name - in fact, she's a little bit of a handful! She doesn't mean to hurt anyone, but one day at school she finds out that one little push can lead to BIG problems!

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Let me set the scene for you: It's recess. Children are playing joyfully. The recess bell rings. The students run towards their line and all of a sudden the joy is GONE. There are some kids crying, some on the ground holding scraped knees, others arguing and pointing at each other, and then I get to come over and sort it all out. 

ME: "What happened guys?" 
ANGRY STUDENT #1: "SHE PUSHED ME!!"
ANGRY STUDENT #2: "NAH AH! HE PUSHED ME!!!" 
ANGRY STUDENT #3: "I WAS HERE FIRST!"
SAD STUDENT #4: on the ground holding elbow and knee crying
ME: (lord help me)

Now granted this does not happen all of the time because we work really hard on having students line up safely - but these are kids - they are not perfect. My saving grace is always a social skills book. I've found a new one, Lively Elizabeth! What Happens When You Push, to help teach self-control and reinforce being safe in school.

Little Miss Lively Elizabeth is not in the same scenario at recess but she does decide to push another boy in class. Which causes a whole domino effect of kids falling into one another. Great illustrations showing cause and effect. 

She experiences the social consequences of kids being upset with her but is forgiven after making an apology for her behavior. Loved the making amends part. Although I've been reading it this Spring, I plan on re-reading it at the beginning of the school year next Fall. It's such a great addition to my library. I'm hoping it will help decrease my "Lord help me" moments at recess.


A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful: 
 

Book Review: Two New Howard B Wigglebottom Books

Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns It's OK to Back Away
Author: Howard Binkow
illustrated by Susan F. Cornelison
Interest Level: Ages 4-8

From the Book Jacket: This fun and entertaining illustrated picture book shows children how to handle anger issues and back away from conflicts. The story teaches important skills through humor and real life situations with which young children can immediately identify. There are several suggestions for lessons and reflections at the end of the book. This is the fifth in the award winning, teacher endorsed Howard B. Wigglebottom series.  

Why It's On My Bookshelf: As the school year progresses and new friendships are formed between students something else starts to form....conflicts. And they don't always end nicely. Anger can really mess the whole thing up. So this is the time of year I start teaching A LOT of lessons on how to deal with your anger without hurting other kids. Howard B Wigglebottom Learns It's OK to Back Away is new to my shelf and fits in beautifully with my lessons on learning to get calm and walk away from situations. It's also a good way to demonstrate self-talk. Howard uses the phrase, "Stop, it's OK to back away." Really like that....calming statements work wonders!

Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Monkey
on His Back: A Tale About Telling the Truth 
Author: Howard Binkow
illustrated by Susan F. Cornelison
Interest Level: Ages 4-8

About This Book: Even though Howard's conscience tells him lying is wrong - he chooses to lie anyway - why not? It's so easy and he can get away with it most of the time. Soon he realizes he feels sad and uncomfortable with himself. How can he make this bad feeling go away?

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Oh happy day!! A new book about honesty and the MAJOR problem with lying!! I only have a handful of books addressing this issue. Newsflash: 99.9% of kids know lying is a big NO NO. But all of a sudden they find themselves in a chronic pattern of dishonesty. That's why I dig the metaphor of the monkey (so get your monkey props ready) on the back. Because lying can feel like a horrible burden being carried around. After many incidents of lying Howard starts to feel plain awful about himself. To the point where he can't sleep because of the stress of his bad choices. It's not until he makes a brave decision to tell the truth that the monkey (bad feelings, guilt) leaves. I really love the message at the end....lying makes a person feel completely unhappy. You may be fooling the people around you but deep down you know the truth - and have to live with that knowledge. Whoo! Good stuff.


Check out more Howard goodness at The We Do Listen Foundation

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful:  

Book Review: The Grouchy Ladybug

Author: Eric Carle
Interest Level: Ages 4-8

 From the Book Jacket: Boldly designed pictures and a humorous text tell the story of a tiny anti-hero like no other. The Grouchy Ladybug didn't say "please" or "thank you"; it wouldn't share; it thought it was bigger and more important than anyone else; and it was always ready to pick a fight. This fast moving story with clever die-cut pages invites children to explore the concepts of time, size, shape, and manners. They will laugh and learn from this bad-tempered braggart who met its match and became a nice and better behaved bug.

Why It's On My Bookshelf: A punch, a kick, a pull, a shove, a pinch.....oh yep, those things happen between kiddos at my school from time to time. There's lots of developmental (and environmental) reasons this goes down. I won't bore you with them. My job is to help kids with social growth and surprise surprise....they can get mad and angry during the school day! I've been reading this story for quite a few years. It's very loved among kids because of it's cool setup with varying page sizes and illustrations. But The Grouchy Ladybug has also been a powerful tool for teaching anger management to my K-2 students. Cuz just about every page she is trying to scrap with someone - "Hey you! Wanna fight!!?" Perfect for teaching replacement behaviors. I love hearing the students try and figure out what's under her anger. They try and relate to her! Another thing that gets this story rockin' is my ladybug puppets (I'm borderline obsessed with puppets...it could be another blog in itself). I have two ladybug puppets the kids use to practice how to handle your anger and solve problems. You can do a lot with this story in the area of social skills.


PS. I didn't mention this in my review, but it's also a great CONCRETE book to teach expected behavior and school rules about fighting. We don't fight. Period. There's always another way.

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful:

Book Review: I Call My Hand Gentle

Author: Amanda Haan
Illustrated by Marina Sagona
Interest Level: Ages 4-9

About This Book: In a book about empowerment and choice, an unidentified narrator catalogs some of the wonderful things a hand can do: pick up things, throw, hold, write, draw, push. Fluid, expressionistic illustrations in Day-Glo colors, some full page, some small and square, add potency to the brief words. After exploring what hands can do, the narrator moves to bigger issues--honorable behavior and choice ("I choose not to steal, push, hurt"), with the accompanying illustration, in garish hues, on a background of orange and yellow flames. The book concludes as the narrator recounts good choices (using a hand to pet, cuddle, tickle, and share), which leads to the final statement, "So I'll call my hand gentle." An elegantly simple lesson that will work well at home and in the classroom.


Why It's On My Bookshelf: I've had a lot of success with this book in the younger grades. It is a simple and concrete message. We can use our hands to help or hurt. It's a choice. How will you choose to use your hands? How will you choose to solve your problems? I often read I Call My Hand Gentle a few times throughout the school year. Kids need a lot of reinforcement from adults to choose a non-violent way to deal with problems. I love this activity a teacher did with her students. Go get this wonderful book for your shelf.

Book Review: The Recess Queen

Author: Alexis O'Neill

illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith

Interest Level: Ages 4-8

From the Book Jacket: Mean Jean was Recess Queen and nobody said any different. Nobody swung until Mean Jean swung. Nobody kicked until Mean Jean kicked. Nobody bounced until Mean Jean bounced. If kids ever crossed her, she'd push 'em and smoosh 'em, lollapaloosh 'em, hammer 'em, slammer 'em, kitz and kajammer 'em...until a new kid came to school...

Why It's On My Bookshelf: Trying to find books dealing with bullying in younger grades is often a frustration of mine, until I discovered The Recess Queen in my local bookstore. The little girl on the cover looks like the meanest baddest bully you have ever seen. Based on the title and the cover illustration alone, I was sold. As I read through the story at home, I was expecting the book to teach strategies on how to deal with mean kids at recess. But, The Recess Queen uses a different take on bullying. The strategy is to turn the bully into a friend (and we all know how hard it is to respect someone when they are disrespecting you) with kindness. Yes, there is a moment of standing up for oneself during the story, but it ends with kindness. I really appreciate the author using another child to turn Mean Jean's behavior around. It's been impactful in our K-2 grades. The illustrations are awesome and the kids love all the rhyming. Sometimes nobody knows what to do with the "mean", so I suggest this book to help children see the bully through a different perspective. Also, when I read this one, the kids are a bit appalled by Mean Jean's behavior. I secretly love that.

A Link to This Book and Others You Might Find Helpful: