The Best Kids Books About Anger
Strong emotions can feel overwhelming and scary to kids who are learning how to work through them. Most of these books share ideas for understanding and helping the emotion pass to get to a calmer state. A lot of the books in this list follow a storyline instead of just labeling and describing the feeling. This helps kids to be more engaged and potentially take more away from the reading. To get the best benefit, share during a calm time, and reread several times with discussion. Before or after an upsetting episode, try helping your child work through their anger by giving ideas or even acting out a calming idea that came from the book they enjoyed! Good luck, big emotions can be scary even for adults, but you got this and can be an excellent support for your child in their growing years!
I am in the process of expanding my feelings book lists, so stay tuned. So far, you can check out Kids Books About Sadness and Depression and The Best Kids Books To Help With Anxiety. In the meantime, if you need books about all the feelings, please check out this excellent book list, The Best Kids Books About All the Feelings. If you're looking for books to help more with grief, please check out Helpful Kids Books About Death and Grief.
For this book list, like my other lists, I list them in order of most straightforward and simple to more complex to help you choose what is best for your reader.
Board Books
Touch & Feelings Angry Bear
by Dr. Naira Wilson, illustrated by David Creighton-Pester
I love this addition of touch and feel elements to correspond with feelings. It is terrific for helping littles connect with and understand more about various feelings, in this book's case, learning more about anger. What's wonderful about this board book is that along with the relatable touch and feel pads to connect to anger there are also empathic statements about how everyone experiences anger and listening to your feelings. The bear in the story progresses from grumpy and angry to calm and fuzzy wuzzy. Ideas to help calm are embedded in this simple yet impactful story on anger for the youngest readers.
When I Feel Angry
by Child's Play
Part of an excellent board book series. The monster tells why it's feeling mad, being okay with it, and how it moved past the anger.
Calm-Down Time
by Elizabeth Verdick, illustrated by Marieka Heinlen
I adore Elizabeth Verdick's book series, which is age-appropriate and helps the littlest readers with the common issues they face. This book is one of my favorites by her. Simple text with clear yet catchy illustrations helps the littlest kids start to learn strategies for how to cope with big emotions. This book does not describe feeling words, but it brilliantly gives effective ideas for working through any strong emotion. Strategies shown in the book are breathing, going to a calming space, giving yourself a squeeze, singing, and using words to talk about it. There's also a section in the back with tips for parents and caregivers.
Picture Books
Howl
by Kat Patrick, illustrated by Evie Barrow
A big emotion read for littles that will capture their imaginations and draw them into the story while giving some ideas about what to do when big emotions strike. After a tough day, Maggie begins to have wolfish thoughts. She sneaks out of bed into the backyard to run around and attempts to howl at the moon. She hears a howl and is surprised to find her wolf mom outside with her. Together, they practice howling and all the things wolves do. Did it help with her big emotions and rough day? Love the imagination usage to turn into a wolf both through text and illustration nods, which are a little whimsical and will help capture little's interest while reading.
Allie All Along
by Sarah Lynne Reul
One of my favorite shares with kids about dealing with anger! It's simple, engaging, and helpful. When Allie's crayon snaps, she becomes SOOO angry, just like a monster! (My kids love the anger monster depictions! Fun, colorful, and helps reiterate the steps of calming down slowly.) Luckily, her big brother is there to help her work through her big emotions. He gives her ideas one at a time, and slowly, the layers of anger are peeled off. After all the layers are gone, there's Allie, and her brother is waiting nearby with a hug for her.
Little Angry Cat
by Audrey Bouquet, illustrated by Lambert Fabien Öckto
Little Cat wakes up late and is in a bad mood. He's feeling too grumpy to play with the other cats and stomps, claws, and hisses. Finally, after climbing to the top of a tree and going to his favorite hiding place, he needs a big breath. After some time calming down, he's ready to play again.
Angry Me
by Sandra V. Feder, illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell
A book all about all the different ways we can feel angry. A child talks about the times they get angry, like when things don't feel fair, they're tired, sad, and more. So relatable and a great one to use as a conversation starter!
The Big, Angry Roar
by Jonny Lambert
Even though she started it, Cub is angry after getting in trouble for roughhousing with his sister! As he walks away, he talks with different animals about how they let their anger out. Eventually, a Baboon helps him find a way to work through his anger.
Sometimes I Am Furious
by Timothy Knapman, illustrated by Joe Berger
Most of the time, life is good for the child in this story, but once in a while, things happen that are so unfair they make her feel furious! After a talk with a loved one, she finds some simple ways to calm down when feeling furious, and now, the feeling doesn't last as long as she experiences it.
Sweep
by Louise Greig, illustrated by Julia Sarda
Ed's bad mood started as something small, tripping after a leaf blocked his view. After this, his bad mood grew, and wanted Ed to take off sweeping everything in sight. As Ed runs along pushing his broom, he collects more and more of a ridiculous build-up with leaves, animals, bikes, a bus, a tram, a band, and more. No matter how absurd his idea to sweep everything up became, Ed felt even more determined; his bad mood decided it was worth it. Eventually, some questions, fatigue, and hunger creep in, but will Ed decide to give up or change? Kids will love the ridiculous factor in this story, sweeping up a bus full of people, a marching band, and more!
I Am a Tornado
by Drew Beckmeyer
An angry, dysregulated tornado and an empathetic cow are an unlikely pairing in this cute read about working through strong emotions. Tornado is on a rampage, yelling, spinning, picking up, and throwing everything in its path. That is until it picks up Cow, who asks questions and listens to Tornado. Will Tornado be able to continue being large and destructive, or will Cow's words and presence make a difference? A simple, sweet, and validating read on experiencing intense emotions and the power of being an empathetic listener. Plus, we loved learning some facts about tornadoes embedded in the story.
Clovis Keeps His Cool
by Katelyn Aronson, illustrated by Eve Farb
Clovis is a bull who has taken over his late Granny's china shop. When former rival players stop by to taunt him, will Clovis be able to keep his cool? This book will draw readers in, while also sharing ways Clovis can manage his anger that used to take over.
Rita & Ralph's Rotten Day
by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Pete Oswald
Rita and Ralph are best friends, and every day, they run up and down the hills from their houses to meet in the middle at their tree house. They give high-fives, dance, play tag, and make daisy chains. When playing a new game, "Sticks and Stones," one day Rita got hurt. It was so bad they both ran away. Feeling sorry, Ralph goes to apologize, but the long walk makes him grumpy. His sorry doesn't come out the best, and Rita doesn't receive it well. Back and forth it goes until the night comes, and no one can sleep. What happens on a new day? Well, it is a new day... Great read to talk about friendship, apologizing, and emotions!
Fergal the dragon feels fiery mad when things don't go his way. He is so fiery that he burns up the game he was playing with friends, the goodies he couldn't wait to cool down, and more. When he notices his friends behaving differently around him and asks his mom, she shares ideas to help cool his anger before it blows out of proportion.
Sour Cakes
by Karen Krossing, illustrated by Anna Kwan
Two siblings wake up for the day; one is cheerful, and the other is in no mood for anything, full of the grumps. The cheerful older sibling makes plenty of suggestions, which are all vetoed or argued about. What will the other sibling do when the big feelings start to overboil and the upset sibling wants to just disappear? Fans of the Rabbit Listened will enjoy this one, too. Validating feelings and accepting the moment as is to work through uncomfortable feelings.
Even Superheroes Have Bad Days
by Shelly Becker, illustrated by Eda Kaban
Did you know superheroes have bad days? What do they do when they are having a bad day? The book's first part is filled with possible guesses as to how they might act, like shrieking, knocking over buildings, and using laser eyesight to start fires. Then the book turns to superheroes having choices on how to burn off their angry steam into more productive outlets, like outer-space mountain biking and acknowledging their big feelings to be ready to face the rest of the day.
Way Past Mad
by Hallee Adelman, illustrated by Sandra de la Prada
When Keya discovers her brother Nate messed up her room, she is mad. Then she discovers Nate also fed her breakfast cereal to the dog and cut holes in her favorite hat. Keya is so mad that she can feel the madness spread everywhere like a rash. When she stops on the way to school and finds another hole, this time in the sock she's wearing, she's furious. Her friend, Hooper, sees her and tries to help, but Keya runs away. After Keya falls and Hooper stops to help, Keya responds with anger at Hooper, giving him her mad. Can Keya find a way past mad and get her friend back? With its intriguing and relatable storyline for kids, this book is a winner for taking a closer look at big emotions and brainstorming ideas on coping with them.
"My rage gives me power. My rage keeps me safe. My rage makes me stronger. My rage makes me brave!"
If you're looking for a book that shows ways anger can be helpful, check this one. A child goes from not understanding and even fearing an out-of-control anger to understanding its power and how anger helps. Illustrations and text combine to help describe hard-to-decipher anger.
Hello, Anger
by Jessica Sinarski, illustrated by Macky Pamintuan
Did you know that anger can be like an iceberg? Anger is the tip of the iceberg sticking out above the water, and underneath lurks the rest of the iceberg, carrying feelings of shame, fear, sadness, and more. Today's book is about uncovering anger and is meant to be a tool to help have meaningful conversations about anger. The students at Sunnyvale Elementary carry things you can't see as well, like big feelings and confusing emotions, in their backpacks, along with regular backpack gear. Mrs. Miller helps the students work to become backpack detectives to uncover what feelings are hiding in their backpacks with the anger. They work together to say hello to different feelings, identify why they were feeling that way, and plan ideas for the future. After they address the different feelings in books, they disappear, and the load becomes lighter. Love the identification of how different emotions might be felt and how to work through them. The back features tips for caregivers.
