When Sophie Gets Angry — Really, Really Angry...
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the The Why-Askers stage.
Why it fits The Why-Askers (for preschoolers whose every page sparks a question)
Sophie's anger blazes across the pages, then cools in the wide green world. It validates the volcano and models the walk that calms it. A Caldecott Honor for making a feeling visible.
What makes it special
Bang paints anger from the inside — the world literally turns red and jagged around Sophie. The bold, vibrating colors calm in perfect sync with her walk through the trees. It validates the volcano while modeling the exit, and it does so without a single word of lecture.
About Molly Bang
Molly Bang is a four-time Caldecott Honor artist and the author of Picture This, the standard text on how picture composition creates emotion — she is, in effect, both practitioner and theorist of the picture book.
Bang studied Japanese and worked as an interpreter and journalist in Japan before illustration; her analytical mind turned to why images move us, and Sophie's visual anger is her theory made practice.
Also by this author: Ten, Nine, Eight · The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher · Picture This
More from “Big Feelings, First Friendships”
This book is part of The Best Books for Preschoolers: 30 Teacher Picks (The Why-Askers) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.