Baditude: What to Do When Life Stinks

by Julia Cook, Anita DuFalla (Illustrator)

"My name is Norman David Edwards, but everybody calls me Noodle. Some days, my life just stinks!"


Turn scowls and negativity into smiles and positivity! Teach complainers and pessimists to overcome bad moods or feelings of hopelessness by changing their outlook. Learn from Noodle, a boy whose attitude, or 'baditude' is alienating everyone around him.


With help from a teacher and his mom, Noodle learns how to turn his ‘ have tos ’ into ‘ get tos ’ and his ‘baditude’ into gratitude! Kids in grades K through 6 are empowered to actively look for positives in all situations and manage how they choose to feel about what they cannot control.


This title is from the Responsible Me! series by award-winning author Julia Cook. The series promotes life skills, strengthens character development, and helps kids use better social skills at school and at home.


Included at the end of the storybook are tips for parents and educators to help students turn a negative attitude into a positive attitude.


The series also

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Social Work

31 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2015

About the author

"In order to teach children, you must enter their view of the world."
~ Julia Cook

JULIA COOK, M.S. is a national award winning children’s author, counselor and parenting expert. She has presented in thousands of schools across the country and abroad, regularly speaks at national education and counseling conferences, and has published children’s books on a wide range of character and social development topics. The goal behind Cook’s work is to actively involve young people in fun, memorable stories and teach them to become lifelong problem solvers. Inspiration for her books comes from working with children and carefully listening to counselors, parents, and teachers, in order to stay on top of needs in the classroom and at home. Cook has the innate ability to enter the worldview of a child through storybooks, giving children both the “what to say” and the “how to say it”.

Reviews

[Karen Kline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Julia Cook knows just how to teach without preach. The kid in the story just can't sleep in and play video games like he wants and the ensuing bad attitude is clearly of his own making. Finding the courage and grit to choose better is the theme that will provide adults the springboard they need to start conversations about cognitive behavioral therapy for kids.

[Alissa Peanasky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of my students could relate to this book. It would be easy to create a social skills lesson about looking for gratitude and there are questions in the back of the book for discussion.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect, as usual, for kids. They love Noodle... great message.

[Toni Guyton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book to teach those social skills but I do wish it was a little less verbose for our kiddos that need less words. Over all not too bad.

[PottWab Regional Library]

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[Briana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great connection to being in a bad mood and how the cognitive flip to this is gratitude. Well written and easy to follow. Perhaps a little overkill on the baditude, but does drive the point home.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across this book as I was browsing children's books suggested for fostering a growth mindset in kids and requested it from the library. My 8 year old read it today and it was a great discussion book. We often have discussions about how his outlook on a situation can affect how good or bad an experience is for him. He has had a habit of complaining if he has to wait "one million hours" or if a situation at school was "just not fair!". This book covered so many of the situations both he and my 11 year old complain about like having to go to bed early and wake up early, having to do homework, having to practice something, etc. Some of the key points the character in the book learns are, the more you complain about something, the more things you will find to complain about and try to change your baditude into gratitude. So instead of complaining about HAVING to do something, focus on how you GET to do something and how that can be a positive thing.

There is a list of things parents can do with their kids to help turn baditude into gratitude in their kids (and these apply to adults too!). My son and I talked about which situations in the book also applied to his life and how he can change his outlook on these situations. Some things we have been working on that tied in nicely with this book was when we talk about how his day went in addition to talking about what may have gone wrong that day he also has to tell me three things that went well that day too. It's so easy to focus on the negatives that you gloss over the things that did go right. We also have discussed that sometimes you just have to brush off other people's negative attitude. Just because someone says something about you doesn't make it true. If they tease him that doesn't make their criticism true and maybe it's even hiding some insecurity in themselves. He may not be able to get them to stop saying something but he can change how he reacts to the situation.

I love the closing quote in the book and this is the second book we've read recently that mentioned this quote: "Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it!" - Charles Swindoll and I think it's a great quote to embrace in life.

[Narita · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book is the perfect word to describe a bad attitude. Children and adults all experience them. As adults we are mature enough to know we have a lousy attitude, but a child is not always able to recognize it. They don’t understand why they feel the way they do and certainly have no clue how to remedy it. Their mood spirals out of control until their actions are out of control too!
The story follows “Noodle”, Norman David Edwards. Noodle feels he has had a very bad day from the time he gets up until he comes home from school. There is just one irritating, unfair incident after another. To Noodle everything “STINKS” and is unfair. His mood escalates until by the time he arrives home he mad. As he shares the day’s events with his mom she begins to point out the positive things he is overlooking gives him some very useful insights and tools to deal with his overpowering emotions and clouded thinking.
The concepts and ideas Ms. Cook shares are easy to understand and eye opening. Her communication skills and experience as a school counselor are evident. In addition to reading the book, I also had a 10 and 13 year old read it. Both children enjoyed the book said it made them very thoughtful about when they have a “baditude”. Each one said the story helped them realize that they need to focus on the positive side of their life more. One said that it helped them see that their sour disposition affects those around them and it can put others in a bad mood too.
At the back of the book are 10 tips to teach a child to change a negative attitude into a positive one. Eye catching illustrations, sound wisdom, and written from a child’s viewpoint. A great to help children (and it wouldn’t hurt adults to read it either!) I can’t wait to read more of Ms. Cook’s books! Go to http://www.juliacookonline.com to see more of them!

[Riley Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baditude, is a great book for showing children that life is all about perspective. Noodle is a young boy who thinks his whole world stinks! Spelling tests, girls, soccer practice everything stinks. Throughout the story Noodle's Mom teaches him that Noodle just has a bad attitude and if he changes his world will seem a lot less stinky.

An activity to do with your students would be to make a chart with two columns. First ask the students what is something stinky in their life. Next, have them come up the 'gratitude' side of the stinky things. This way your students are changing their baditudes.


Cook, J., & DuFalla, A. (2015). Baditude!: What to do when your life stinks! Boys Town, NE: Boys Town Press

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Julia Cook's stories as they all have a message. Baditude is no different. Noodle is having a bad day and everything in his life stinks until his mother sets him straight. Change your attitude and life is not so bad. I work with kids and I have used this book every day since it arrived. Keep the books coming Julia Cook.

[Leaf clever · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has great messages for both little kids and the bigger ones as well, as this book teaches a lot about attitude and how it affects one's life tremendously, and how significant it is to hold a good attitude in order to live a happy life and more simple life without negative or overthinking.

[Angela (Kentuckybooklover) Brocato-Skaggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book we read in special education today.

[Maggie Mattmiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have for classrooms! All about the power of a positive attitude (and the power of a negative one!) Gives strategies for kids to turn around the attitude (turning attitude into gratitude.)

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Norman learns that having gratitude is a better way to live.

[Mckenzie Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all have good days and bad days but there are times where it is really hard to not let your mood affect other people. But this book helps all ages become aware of how our mood can hurt other people. I like this book for kids because I think that it social awareness is something we neglect to discuss, especially now in our technology age.

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series by Julia Cook is a great way to discuss undesirable behavior in a non-threatening way.