Cool Down and Work Through Anger / Cálmate y supera la ira (Learning to Get Along®)

by Cheri J. Meiners

Reassuring and supportive, this book helps preschool and primary children learn concrete social skills for anger management and discover that when they cool down and work through anger, they can feel peaceful again.

The English-Spanish editions from the popular Learning to Get Along series help children learn, understand, and practice basic social and emotional skills. Real-life situations and lots of diversity make these read-aloud books appropriate for homes, childcare settings, and primary and special education classrooms. Presented in a social story format, each bilingual book includes a special section for adults, with discussion questions, games, activities, and tips that reinforce improving social skills.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Emotion, Friendship, Family, Autistic Spectrum Disorder

50 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Cheri has her master's degree in elementary education and gifted education. A former first-grade teacher, she has taught education classes at Utah State University and has supervised student teachers. She is the author of the award-winning children's series, 'Learning to Get Along', and the new series, 'Being the Best Me.' Cheri and her husband, David, have six children and three grandchildren.

Reviews

[Sherry Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of reasons we can get angry. It's how we deal with it that makes the difference. Cool Down and Work Through Anger is a fantastic book that shows kids that it's normal to get angry. It begins with a few scenarios that might cause a kid to be angry - being left out of a play group, being treated with disrespect. Then it talks about the physical feeling of being angry - hot face, tense muscles, fast heartbeat. It talks about what you might want to do if you get angry, but then explains that these are not always the best choices. Finally, it gives some very helpful advice on what to do if you are feeling angry. The illustrations really do a great job in explaining what is going on in the book. Even if a child can't read, they can understand the book's message.

As a parent, I really like the last part of the book - the discussion questions and activities. It breaks down the book by pages and gives questions to talk about with your kids like, "When is a time you felt angry?" and "When is a time you said 'I'm sorry?' How did it feel afterward?" There are also some wonderful cool-down activities kids can try when they are angry. I think the advice is also great for adults. I highly recommend this book.

[Desiree Giroux · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son has a hard time with transitions at school and calming down is not an easy thing for him. Prior to this book we had discussed some ways to calm down (deep breathing..etc), he refused to try them until this book. He actually requests to read this book so much, that I have to tell him to get a different book to keep reading time interesting. I really like how this book gives good examples of getting angry and real-life ways to deal with them. This book also prompts my son to ask questions about anger and forgiveness; I love when a book can prompt a good learning experience.

[Brooke Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend from my d group introduced this book series to me and we have several of them now. This book walks through why kids might get mad such as not getting their way or not being respected. It then gives a range of ideas for cooling down that is really helpful. I really like how this book has questions in the back on understanding anger, processing anger, and resolving anger.

[Naomi E. Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful


Dealing with my grandchildren and their anger issues, this book has some very helpful strategies. I would recommend this book to anywhere who is dealing with children and their anger issues.

[Alexandra Chauran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended by my kid's Montessori school teacher. I loved how this book showed that anger is a finite thing that can pass. My kid and I talked about some concrete things one can do while cooling down from anger.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

We all get angry but how do we deal with it? This book uses great illustrations to help show the best way to handle you anger and feelings to others. Teachers you want tips? This book contains many different ideas to make your classroom more peaceful.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know some adults who could use this book.

[Gina Starling · Rating 5 out of 5]

PK-2

Teaching children to handle their anger constructivly. This would be a perfect book to pull out and read if there are students having difficulty getting along.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This entire series of books are great and I used them regularly when I was a social worker

[Tara Schloetter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really, really great book and includes advice and guidance to help teach students methods to deal with angry thoughts they might have. One part of this book I especially liked was the fact that it doesn’t diminish a child’s feelings, whether these angry feelings are valid or not. On page 10 the book reads, “Keeping my anger shut inside me won’t make things better, either. All of my feelings are okay. I can admit when I feel angry.” This teaches children to acknowledge and better understanding their feelings by thinking about what they are thinking and feeling about. This book uses simple language and vocabulary that would be easy to read and comprehend by young children, and would still be very useful with older children. At the very end of the book, there are a couple pages that are for the adults and describe many different methods in which to reinforce the ideas in this book. It lists questions that the adult can ask the child throughout different parts of the book (the story is focused on different parts of anger, such as understanding anger, processing anger, and resolving anger). Additionally, there are games and activities that are described that a teacher can use with their students when conflicts arise in the classroom. This would be a great book for teachers to keep on hand and use when a student has not been expressing his/her anger appropriately. A teacher can also send this book home with a student for a parent and child to read together, if there have been similar problems at home as well.

[Emmalee Orman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book Cool Down and Work Through Anger is about a little boy who learns to deal with his anger and learns ways to cool down when he is upset. He realizes that sometimes he needs to take a second and breathe before he reacts/responds to the situation so that he does not burst.
I would say that this is a good quality book because it has a good plot and storyline. With this book I think that it could really reach too students who do not know how to control there emotions. This book gives a good example of using flat characters which means having characters in the story to just add people, they don't play a big part within the story. Some of the characters with in the story were just used to be referenced.
I think that this book could be read to students in grades first too fourth because in those ages they are learning more about themself and there emotions. With learning how to control and express them.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really useful teaching tool which we read after tantrums with my now seven-year-old. I even read it from time to time with my nine-year-old, injecting personal stories that are relevant to us at the time of reading. I find it helps calm both adult and child, and the activity helps move us out of crazy mode and into problem-solving.

My only reservation about this book is the way it was illustrated. I feel like some implicit bias may have crept in -- all the bad behaviour is done by the kids of colour, while the main character and his pleasant family are uniformly white. If the rest of the series rotates viewpoints among who the main character is and who is creating the "problems", that might balance out the depictions presented in this book but I haven't had a chance to read the others in the series to investigate further.

[Teresa Selders]

The age group for this book could start from K- 3rd or 4th grade. (It could also be read to pre school children). It will be a choice for my classroom library because it teaches children to talk to someone they trust when angry, teaches them ways to calm down and to tell others you're sorry when you do something wrong. It also teaches forgiveness and some other things to do in order to work through anger. The illustration was eye catching. For the really young readers, the pictures will probably help them understand better.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bilingual Spanish/English reprint of this old piece that shows the narrator remember about calm thoughts – why he shouldn't flare up when he gets angered, but count to ten, take himself away for alone time, talk things through and perhaps nicely confront the person he deems did him wrong. Lively artwork of lively children really makes this relatable, and this is well worth a look, whether the two languages (for both the kids-friendly pages and for the adult-only matter to close) are important to you or not.

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good bilingual story about a young boy dealing with anger. Additional bonus in the back of the book giving valuable tips for coping with anger in various situations and ways to help kids learn about emotions and empathy. I plan to use this book for adults! When it comes to uncontrolled anger, it goes back to childhood behavior that was never handled in a helpful way.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m on the fence. I think this is a simple, easy to understand story. It really resonated with my 4 year old, and will work great for children between the ages of 4 and 7.

However, the children who were rude to the little boy who showed anger were both reflected non-whites. While I applaud books for being diverse, I wish they would not do it in a derogatory manner.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This whole series is excellent!

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Some good ideas for anger in normal situations and of average intensity.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It's a wonderful way to approach handling anger in the classroom. I really like this book and will probably utilize more of this series as well, it's really great.

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super great book

[E & E’s Mama · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this Learning to Get Along series. We’ve read several of them and they’re great for learning social skills and emotional regulation.

[Thera Grady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book about dealing with anger feelings. It's short but to the point and keeps things on a positive note. My son struggles with explosive-ness and he needs as many examples of dealing with frustration/anger/hurt that he can get. This is a no bones about it type of book, but in a respectful way. I really appreciate it. there are so many stories of revenge, retaliation, tricking, etc....it's nice to have a quick little guide to bring it to the real world. Obviously he has a lot of work to do and this book isn't a miracle or anything, but it's a nice start.

[Abby Peskin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reads like a social story and could be read to children aged anywhere from 4 to 8. This would be a great way to both normalize anger, and to give children good strategies for dealing with that anger. It also realistically tells you that anger does not go away forever, but that there are ways to deal with that anger when it comes up.

[Principle Based Learning]

(recommended by: Ashley B)
Click here for the full article on: More Than Just Fairytales

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes tips on self-regulation as well as noticing the signs of anger. This book mentions both physical and verbal lashing out.

[K Morlando · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice read with some littles

[Sieni A.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

great for my strong-willed children and, ahem, their mother too

[Paul Alsted]

Cool Down and Work Through Anger is a social story to help children work through their anger. The book also gives the children appropriate ways to express their feelings without acting out. This would be a good book in an early elementary setting or for special education classrooms.