I absolutely love this book, but I also absolutely hate this book. And EVERY library, classroom, and home should have a copy. First the love. The illustrations are amazing. They do such a good job of conveying the story. At first anger is the ram running into the door, then it’s an alligator, a rhinoceros, a dragon. It’s glorious. But as the story says, it’s also lonely. So the reader needs to learn calming ways. At first the boy loves the anger side and how everyone reacts, but that reaction doesn’t last.

And It’s probably that I am reading and judging this book the Monday after the Douglas Stoneman High School shooting which makes me hate this book. I hate that we as a society NEED this book. That we are not teaching our kids to control our anger, or manage the feelings inside us. I HATE that we need a book that in the back talks about WHY we need to teach these things to our kids. Because they are not learning it on their own. Instead they bottle it up until it explodes. We need this book for Adults as well. We need to remember, or relearn the lessons of this book. We need to stop talking over everyone, letting our anger ram hit the door, and teaching our children that anger is okay. So for me, this is not just a lesson for child in a kids book, but a lesson for all the USA. And even sadder, is it takes a French book to teach the US a lesson. Because we cannot write it ourselves.