At the end of this last school year my seven year old son got into some issues for getting angry and not handling himself properly, so I brought home the books from the library with a theme of being angry. One of the books we read together was Angry Dragon.

This book tells of a boy who gets very angry, so angry he becomes what his parents call a dragon. He doesn't listen, he doesn't talk, he just storms about, fiery red with anger. He doesn't think about what he is doing but then he realizes that he is alone with his ruins and he feels sad for what he has done. He turns back into a boy realizing that being a human is much better than being an angry dragon.

The book is written by Thierry Robberecht and uses a lot of descriptive words. Colors, feelings, thoughts, are used in ways that not only describe how the boy is in the book, but also might give young readers some words themselves to describe how they feel when they get mad (after reading the book) and realizing that others can be in the same boat. There are several sentences on each page, but the book isn't very long at 29 pages.

The illustrations are eye catching, straight away, even from the front cover. Philippe Goossens does a great job of showing the anger the boy has, with deep reds. Each scene is done in oil painting and does a great job os showing the little red-headed boy and his exasperated parents getting angry back at him, trying to calm him down, and loving him once he does.

There is no punishment for his behavior, because it is OK to get angry, but adults (actually all those around someone who is angry) don't like what some people do when they get angry. He is praised and he tells the reader how he realizes that he is much better as a person and he can even say I love you when he is a boy, but not when he is a dragon and can't speak human.

Overall this is a good book for showing how being angry can be and why raging isn't a good idea.

Recommended: Yes