Review: The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon by Matthew Burgess & Fiona Woodcock

Curmudgeon definition: a bad-tempered, difficult, cranky- person; a grouch. Now, how do you budge an unbudgeable curmudgeon? A young girl must figure out how to get rid of the unbudgeable curmudgeon. She tries everything including fudge brownies! But he won’t budge, leaving her out of ideas until she decides to join him. This book explores feelings of grumpiness and what to do about it when you are dealing with a grumpy person or your own feelings of grumpiness. The illustrations are very well done, and help to show a sibling rivalry while normalizing grumpy feelings and coping mechanisms. This story also shows how this feeling may come and go. Having the child turn into a monster when crabby better allows the young reader to better understand their grumpy feelings. This story is great for the reader who may be feeling cranky or difficult and doesn’t always know why.

Resources:

A great resource to get teaching guides for different ages for this book and topic! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:unbudgeable%20curmudgeon

Reviews! https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40640806-the-unbudgeable-curmudgeon

Review: The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen & Dan Hanna

A fish is always grumpy and then gets happy

Review: Happy Right Now by Julie Berry & Holly Hatam

What would you need to be happy? A unicorn? For everyone to tell you how much they love you? When you’re no longer sick? What if you were happy right now! 

The young girl in this story says she will only be happy if that is the case. But then she remembers she could be happy right now. The end of the book talks about how sometimes being happy isn’t an option and that’s alright. This book serves as a good reminder to whoever is reading  that being happy with where you’re at is always a good thing, but it also can be good to just feel as you are. This book has beautiful drawings and depicts a young black girl as the main character. Though the childs black race is not specifically mentioned and it is important for normalizing diversity in children’s books. Great for the reader who may be struggling with feelings and feeling down or not quite themselves.

If you like this book you may like:

Feelings Ninja by Mary Nhin

I Choose to Try Again by Elizabeth Estrada

Review: The Color Monster by Anna Llenas

One day, the Color Monster wakes up very confused and doesn’t know how he feels. The young girl decides to help him separate his emotions, demonstrated with colors, and put them into jars to determine what he feels. Through this strategy they sort through each emotion and what it feels like. For each emotion, the book talks about things that one may enjoy doing or not enjoy doing while feeling this emotion. Doing this is a very easy to understand, relatable way for children to grasp the idea of emotions/feelings. The use of a monster is also a fun way to explain emotions. The artwork is well done and expertly matches the tone of the story with child-like illustrations and color choices. Each emotion also is given its own color which can potentially assist children with emotional literacy. Great for the reader who is learning how to separate and understand emotions and feelings.  

If you like this book you may like:

Happy Right Now by Julie Berry

The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon by Matthew Burgess

Review: The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too! By Mo Willems

This pigeon does NOT want to be happy when the bus driver tells him to. He is angry, he is sad, and he has feelings too. This book depicts how sometimes you don’t want to be happy, you just want to be upset. Even though people may tell you that your feelings are incorrect, you have feelings too and they are valid! The everyday nature and familiarity of pigeons help to make this abstract idea to be more approachable. This book helps to show that it’s okay to be upset or frustrated that we all have our own feelings. Whatever we are feeling in that moment is exactly what we are meant to be feeling, since feelings are deeply personal. The artwork and incorporation of the words with the illustrations allows for an easy to read feel. Great for the younger reader who is learning about feelings and emotions.  

If you like this book you may like…

Happy Right Now by Julie Berry

The Unbudgeable Curmudgeon by Matthew Burgess