Bang, Molly. When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry. New York: The Blue Sky Press, 1999.
When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry begins as Sophie, the main character of this realistic fictional picture book, gets angry as her sister tries to grab the toy that she is playing with from Sophie’s grip. Sophie becomes enraged as she trips over a toy truck when knocked off balance by her sister’s snatch. Sophie “kicks. She screams. She wants to smash the world into smithereens.” This book follows Sophie’s journey as she battles with her emotions and deals with her anger.
Sophie is a young girl who is used to bring about this theme by using a familiar occurrence in children’s lives: the sharing of a favorite toy. Molly Bang, the author and illustrator, tells a realistic story through simple text and cartoon art. The simplistic text helps children understand the theme that anger is a natural occurrence and there are constructive ways to manage it.
Bang does an excellent job at connecting the illustrations in perfect harmony with the text. The full-color pages are alive with intense purples, oranges and reds at the height of Sophie’s rage, but are later replaced with soothing blues and greens after she is calmed. Bang uses the effect of line throughout the story to show the intensity of her emotions. In the beginning of the story Sophie is outlined in a yellow, but as her anger grows it moves to a flaming red, then back down.
This is a well-written story with attention catching illustrations, and teaches a great lesson to children of all ages.
Another Source:
Cullinan, Bernice, and Lee Galda. Literature and the Child. 5th ed. Wadsworth, 2002
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
When you presented, we talked about intertextual connections. What do others think about this in comparison to "Where the Wild Things Are" or "No David!" or "If I Were a Lion"?
Post a Comment