When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry…

Written by Molly Bang

Narrated by Annie Meisels

Category: Feelings"Oh is Sophie ever angry now!"Everybody gets angry sometimes. For children, anger can be very upsetting. Parents, teachers, and children can talk about it. People do lots of different things when they get angry. In this Caldecott-honor book, kids will see what Sophie does when she gets angry. What do you do?"...Bang's double-page illustrations, vibrating with saturated colors, that reveal the drama of the child's emotions."-SLJ, starred review"...an elegant and thought-provoking book for...children learning how to deal with emotions." -NY Times Book Review

Everybody gets angry sometimes. For children, anger can be very upsetting. Parents, teachers, and children can talk about it. People do lots of different things when they get angry. In this Caldecott Honor book, kids will see what Sophie does when she gets angry. What do you do?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Release date: Jan 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9780545047029

Molly Bang

MOLLY BANG has written and illustrated more than twenty books, including three Caldecott Honor winners: When Sophie Gets Angry—Really, Really Angry…; Ten, Nine, Eight; and The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher. She lives close to the ocean in Massachusetts.

Reviews for When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry…

[gdoyle-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I think this is a book that many adults should read too!The giant red shadow and red roar are excellent representations of anger. Sophie has the place she goes to gather herself. A great resource for children learning hop to cope with angry feelings.

[readerspeak_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The language of this important story about how to deal with strong emotions is right on target for young ears, using rhyme, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. The wildly bright and colorful abstract paintings enhance and extend the narration, subtly changing to cooler colors as Sophie's mood changes. A delightful book!

[marleny · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My boys loved hearing this story.. Very fun to listen to!

[bre201 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sophie's anger takes hold of her and it overwhelms her. She overreacts to her feeling, and then uses a walk through nature to calm herself and regulate. This book demonstrated how children can accept their emotions and self regulate.

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well sure, if I could have let my children run and run until they exhausted their anger, and then let them explore nature on their way back home to find joy, we'd all have been happier. Not all of us are lucky enough to live where that's possible, though. However, if you do live on a ranch or next to a park or to woods, I do recommend this book. The artwork's metaphors are wonderful in and of themselves, too,if you are an artist.

[lauryn1025 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book 'When Sophie Gets Angry...Really, Really Angry" is about a girl who does not want to share her toy and gets upset when she has to. Sophie is so mad that she runs away from her family. At the end of the book Sophie is no longer upset and has taken the time to calm down. This is a great book for classrooms because this is a problem that teachers deal with often. A lot of kids have a hard time sharing. It helps children learn how to deal with their emotions. The book was great because it used different writing styles in order to portray the story to children. This was done using metaphors. This story could have been extended if the author wrote about what happened the next time Sophie was in a situation that she had to share with her sister. Another way the story could be extended was if Sophie didn't come back home like she did.

[lmckenzie-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was a great compliment to our feelings unit. It emphasized to my young readers that it is okay to feel angry but that the emotion can be scary at times. It gave practice ideas for dealing with emotions and was complimented by beautiful illustrations.

[bayleewestrick · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This realistic fictional book tells the story of a little girl who throws many tantrums when she gets angry. She kicks, screams and roars a lot when she is mad. She will go for runs, cries, or climbs trees. Finally, she lets the world calm her down and she can go back home where she isn't angry any more and her family is happy to see her.

[lpierson14 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is realistic fiction book. It tells a story where Sophie get very angry when she is forced to share her gorilla with her sister. This story does a good job of putting pictures and words to the emotion of anger. Sophie retreats to the woods and climbs a tree to cool off. It models a healthy way to manage anger and is a great book for many ages to lead into discussions about fairness and anger. It is beautifully illustrated.

[kfrost32 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I think this is a great book to read to children. This book is about a girl who gets angry and goes through a process of how to calm herself down. I think this would be great for children because it can help teach them what to do when they get angry and they can think of things that calm themselves down when they are mad.

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When Sophie and her sister get into a fight over whose turn it is to play with a specific toy, Sophie loses it. Her anger gets to the point that she runs away from the house and into a tree nearby, looking out over all the natural world around her. Here she finds peace and returns home calm.While I appreciate that this book looks at children's emotions and acknowledges that difficult ones like anger can often be a part of a child's day, I find it difficult to love this book as much as others do. Yes, Sophie does deal with her anger in a nonviolent manner and the fact that she can self-soothe to a degree is admirable. But I dislike greatly that her way of dealing with anger is to literally run away from the situation without a word to others and to come back in later without an apology for her behavior. I'm just not sure that's the way I'd want to teach kids to deal with their frustration. That all being said, however, I find that kids really do connect with this book. I recently read this with my 4-year-old niece, and she was interested in going back to this title after we finished it to examine the beginning again. I used to have a print copy/audio book version in my kindergarten class, and the kids all loved to read/listen to this one over and over again. So clearly this title does strike a chord with kids, who frequently get angry with one another over small incidents like sharing toys. I just wish it presented a better response than simply running away from one's problems.

[missloni-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book on emotions and understanding and coping with anger.

[hollyegirard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is under the realistic fiction category and would be used to read and discuss a conflict and what a conflict is. We would then go over some of the key vocabulary and discuss the conflict in the story, how it relates to us, and how to resolve the conflict.

[briannalee-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In my opinion this is an amazing book. The majority of people in our society view anger as a negative emotion, one that is uncontrollable. However, the portrayal of anger within the book show that anger is not only normal it shows there are ways to handle our anger showing growth and maturity. For example, Sophie gets very angry at her sister for taking her toy gorilla. Sophie’s temper gets out of control she starts stomping and having a tantrum. Sophie then realizes that it is okay to be angry but there is a way to deal with it. Sophie is able to calm herself down by running out of the house and feeling the soothing effects of nature. The use of illustrations is remarkable, when Sophie is angry the colors include reds, oranges, and yellows contribute to the feelings of anger in the book. Once Sophie reaches the woods and her feelings change to being calm, the colors change to cool colors such as; blues, greens, and whites.

[rpazmino3calligan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is great for all kids to read, especially those who may get angry or upset easily. IT is about a girl, Sophie, who gets very angry and runs and runs until she reaches a tree and climbs up the tree. In the tree, she looks at the world and calms down. She goes home and everything is alright again. It teaches children's a very valuable lesson of calming down when they are angry and attempting to control their emotions.

[imamarie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When Sophie Gets Really Really Angry is an acclaimed Calecott Award winning book. The author, Molly Bang, depicts Sophie a young girl, who gets very angry at her sister for taking Sophie’s toy gorilla. Sophie’s temper gets out of control as she "loses it" by stomping and having a tantrum. Sophie finds out it is okay to be angry but there is a way to deal with it. Sophie calms herself by leaving the home and feeling the soothing effects of nature. This book shows children that everyone gets angry; however there are ways to handle our anger. I enjoyed reading this book because it is a way to approach a child about feelings and it gives the adults the opportunity to discuss these issues at a time when there is no conflict. The colors and pictures in the book are vibrant and depict emotion such when Sophie is angry bright angry colors are used. [reds, yellows, oranges]This book gives the perfect opportunity to ask open ended questions and get the children to brainstorm ways they can calm down and problem solve conflicts. A chart can be completed with the children’s ideas. The children can be encouraged to draw about a time they really got angry. Another great way to extend this story would be to provide calm down box of activities such as bubble blowing, pinwheels, kaleidoscopes, or for more physical outlets: a punching pillow, playdoh to pound, etc.....

[mderob1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book was not my favorite. I would most likely not choose this book to re aloud in my classroom. I did like the illustrations and almost wish the book were only full of the pictures. The illustrations were fun and colorful and I feel as though the text took away from them. The text was boring too me “Then, for a little while, she cries.” The big idea of this story is dealing with emotions specifically anger.

[indiabessette · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sophie gets really mad when she has to share her toy gorilla with her sister, so she leaves to calm down and then eventually comes back home. Recommended Age: Preschool

[kitirashorter · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I am truly not a fan of the book “When Sophie gets Angry – Really, Really Angry…” The main purpose of this book is to exemplify the benefits of a child cooling down after an altercation. However the way that the plot depicts this in my opinion is not fantastic. It begins with the girl playing and having to share, then getting mad and running away. I feel that this plot shows that children should run away from the issues that they face. This plot also ends with a happy ending where she comes home and everything is all right. I also do not agree with this because no one is looking for her and when she comes home. Also the illustrations within this book do not enhance the story. As I was flipping through the pages and reading on there were many busy colors. These colors were more distracting then they were enhancing in my opinion. For example when she begins to run away after she was angry the colors in the illustration are brown and green with small hints of red. Also the charter within this book is highly underdeveloped. There was no depth to her other then that she gets angry. She has no other emotion explained or really shown throughout the book. Also this book does not give the reader any type of push of deeper thought it is a very shallow thought process that only calls for minimum thought and no thought pushing the issue of anger and calming down.

[allier93 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story shows children the importance of finding ways to control your temper. Sophia was very upset that she wanted to crush everything. In order to control that anger she found a place where she could calm down. This book showed the importance of family. Sophia's mom told her that she needs to share with others. Her parents are teaching her how to play with others. Also once Sophia came home her family was thrilled to have her home.

[dmiller504 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a story about a girl name Sophie who doesn't know how to control her anger. Eventually, she learns and has it under control.

[abigailadams26 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Happily absorbed in her play, Sophie is unprepared when her sister grabs her toy gorilla, and absolutely infuriated when her mother points out that it is her sister's turn to play with it. Boiling over with rage, feeling like a volcano about to explode, Sophie does what she always does when she gets very, very angry: she runs...Chosen as a Caldecott Honor book in 2000, When Sophie Gets Angry -- Really, Really Angry is illustrated in vibrant, primary colors that perfectly capture the emotional register of each scene. Sophie begins the story outlined in a happy yellow, but her quick descent into anger is accompanied by a red halo that grows with her rage, becoming almost another being - a red shadow being - as she throws a temper tantrum. As she slowly calms down, soothed by the quiet beauty of the natural world around her, her outline returns to less strident hues. I really appreciated Molly Bang's use of color here, finding it very astute, and think her artwork will grab young readers' attention. That said, I have to agree with my friend Chandra, in wondering if it was really worthy of a nod from the Caldecott committee. I also had some mixed feelings about the story itself. While I applaud Bang's sympathetic portrait of a child's emotions, I wasn't sure I approved of the way in which the sibling conflict was resolved. I don't know about you, but when I get very angry, removing myself from the situation and calming down - while absolutely necessary - are just the first step. There needs to be discussion, possibly apologies, before everything is back to "normal." Still, despite these reservations, I think this is a good title to use with children, to explore handling strong anger.

[matthewbloome · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story of a girl that loses her temper is simple, but it has a great metaphor in the middle that I'd like to share with readers.

[irachelsweet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Characters: Sophie, her sisterSetting: Sophie’s house, forest, beachTheme: Anger management, how to deal with angerSummary: Sophie gets angry when her sister wants her toy. At the end of the tug of war with the plush gorilla, Sophie falls down on the floor. She is so mad that she kicks, screams, and roars. And she runs into the forest. After she cries for a while, she takes a note on beautiful nature and start exploring and enjoying the nature. Comforted by the cool, crisp breeze that waves from the ocean delivered, she feels much better. When she returns home, she is welcomed with scrumptious dinner smell and warm arms of family. She isn’t angry anymore.Review: This is the cutest anger management book for child I have read so far. I love the illustrations that depict how angry she was and their change of tone once she is calmed down and her feelings softened. When children are angry, their favorite option is to throw a tantrum. They often yell, scream, and grab objects within their reach and throw at anything/anyone. But this book will introduce them that such behavior will only increase their anger and a better way to cope with anger. Also, children will learn that once the moment is over and things have cooled down with their healthy choice of anger management, what awaits them is not a scold from parents or a timeout, but rather a delicious meal and a cozy family time. Curriculum ties: Geography/social studies (my neighborhood), science (nature, woodland creatures, direction of wind, temperature of the ocean), health (anger management)

[cmesa1_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story teaches children how to deal with their feelings in this case being angry. Sophie gets really angry and feels like she is going to explode but the nature and a walk calms her down and then she is able to come back home and everything is fine. It shows kids that is ok to be angry you just have to learn how to deal with the emotion in a healthy way.

[abarajas09 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Genre: Realistic FIctionReview: This is a good example for realistic fiction because we all know that everyone gets mad, but not everyone deals with it in the same way, and here we learn how Sophie deals with it. Media: Watercolor, pastels

[tirzahb_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Summary: Sophie gets in a fight with her sister over a toy, Sophie's mother sides with her sister and Sophie gets very angry and kicks, and screams and wants to smash everything to smithereens. Sophie runs away to be alone and cries, then she climbs an old beech tree and the wide world comforts he. when Sophie feels better she goes home, and her family welcomes her home. Then Every thing is back together againPersonal Reaction:I think this book was a good book, it teaches children that its OK to get angry, and it demonstrates how to handle it in a healthy way with out hurting anyone. I personally enjoyed the colors in this book. I like how the illustrator uses different colors tones with Sophie's emotions to help tell the story. When my 3 yr old child who is not a (Word reader) read this book he knew when to tone his voice down and read the pictures when Sophie calmed down because the colors in the picture were calm.Classroom Extension Ideas:1. I can have the children draw a picture of a time they got really angry like Sophie and have them use colors like reds and yellows that are bright 2. I can have the kids paint a picture of them in a happy place a place ware they can go to calm down when they get angry. I would have them use soothing colors like soft pastel blues, and purples and greens 3. I can teach the kids other ways to handle their anger. I can relaxation techniques to help them when they get angry. like deep breathing, writing about the feelings ( or drawing).

[kaydeeparrish · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Summary: When Sophie Gets Angry is about a girl who does not like to share. She was playing with her toys when her sister comes and grabs one. Sophie gets really mad especially when her mother says she has to share. She gets so mad that she runs.. she has to get away from everything. After taking a few minutes to herself, she returns home feeling much better.Personal Reaction: I think everyone can relate to this book. When I get mad I always try to get away from everyone so I can have a few minutes to myself to recover. Everyone gets mad, but you have to deal with anger in a healthy way.Classroom Extensions:1. This book is a great book to teach children how to share.2. I would have children draw a picture about where they would go when they want to get away.

[jpercival_9 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Summary:When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry is a book about a young girl with a short temper. Sophie does not like to share and when her mother forces her to share her stuffed gorilla Sophie gets very easy and storms out the house. Sophie then makes her way through the woods feeling a little better as she does. She then climbs an old tree where the wind blows her troubles away. Sophie then returns home where everything is back to normal.Personal Reaction: I really enjoyed this book, it is one that is very familiar to many families. Although Sophie's bad temper is a negative the way she handled her temper was good. She left the situation with out causing anymore problems and calmed down. Not everyone has a great tree to climb, but the idea of removing yourself from the situation is a good one.Classroom Extension:

[ke141703 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Summary: This story is about a girl named Sophie who is always getting angry. It starts when her mom asks her to share. The book goes through her showing all kinds of anger. Then after after a long walk she returns home to her loving family.Personal Reaction: I enjoyed reading this book. I thought the pictures and colors were incredible. Also i like how it had words that the students could read outload and act out how she was feeling.Classroom Extension Ideas: First you could have the students make a list of things that make them happy and things than make them angry and explain both lists. Also you could have a leason on sharing and why it is important.