Sometimes Bad Things Happen (Single Titles) - Softcover

PreSchool-Grade 2-This book is designed to help children cope with "bad things" that occur in their everyday lives and to allow them to explore their feelings of sadness, fear, anger, etc. Some of the examples offered include a game being canceled, a sibling being pushed by a bully, adults fighting, and seeing scary news stories on television. After acknowledging the emotions, Jackson reassures youngsters that while "a few people do bad things" most people "want to make the world a better place for everyone." A brief text and crisp, color photos show community heroes such as a firefighter and other professionals caring for people and animals. Simple coping strategies are suggested, such as "Hug a friend. Plant a flower.- Look up at the sky. Sing a brave song," and youngsters are told that "It's okay to cry." Older children could use this book as a springboard for talking about their own experiences and ways to handle them positively. Younger audiences will find comfort in expressing their own sadness and looking for a happier outcome.
Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PrS-Gr. 2. Addressing children who respond to undisguised bibliotherapy, Jackson pairs very brief text with a gallery of posed color photographs in which pictures of sad youngsters give way to scenes of emergency workers and other helpful adults, and then to smiling children and photos of people helping one another. The author follows reasons for feeling "sad, scared, hurt, or angry" (a canceled game, an encounter with a bully, seeing adults argue, or a frightening news story on TV) with the suggestion that "most people want to make the world a better place," and a selection of strategies for coping, including hugging a friend, planting a flower, looking up at the sky, having a cry. "Something good will happen. It always does," she concludes. This isn't like Aliki's Feelings (1984) or Freymann and Elffers' How Are You Peeling? (1999), which beg to be discussed and considered, but it does offer comfort in a more visually appealing way than many of the drab old titles on emotions that tend to linger on library shelves. John Peters
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