Childrens Booklist to help deal with frustration

To young children emotions are difficult to understand, sort through and deal with, especially frustration and anger.  I know that their are a lot of great books out there to help kids with the emotion of frustration, but I picked a few that were on the lighter side, easy to understand and funny.  One thing kids should know is that everyone gets frustrated, you just have to deal with it in a good way.

1. Llama Llama Mad at Mama

By: Anna Dewdney

Baby llama is not happy about having to go shopping with mama and he is mad.  This is a cute rhyming book about what baby llama and mama llama can both do to help with anger and frustration.  This book is good because it shows that we have to do things we do not always want to do.

2. I Was So Mad
By Mercer Mayer

Little Critter is not having a great day.  Everything he wants to do gets a big ol "no" from his family.  He finally gets mad enough and decides to run away, that is until his friends come by and ask him to play baseball.  This book is good at showing one small thing can turn around a bad mood and a bad day.

3. A Volcano in My Tummy
By: Eliane Whitehouse

This book is written for children 6-13 to give them tools to help be aware of anger, communicate emotions, and the skills of anger management.  The book has activities, stories, games, and articles that help to demonstrate these tools and skills.


4. Zach Gets Frustrated
By: William Mulcahy

Zach is having a bad day.  Zach's dad teaches him 3 steps to calm down when he is frustrated.  1. Name it. 2. Tame it. 3. Reframe it.  This is a great book to show kids how to turn a bad mood/day around in 3 easy (rhyming) steps.

5. The Very Frustrated Monster

By: Andi Green

Twitch, the monster, gets upset very quickly when things do not go his way. "It's not fair" & "Why me?" are his favorite sayings when he is frustrated.  The author puts life's mishaps into perspective and makes them quite funny in this cute book.

6. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

By: Judith Viorst

Alexander's day starts off bad, and gets worse from there.  Alexander thinks that if he moves, it will be better.  His mother informs him that everyone has bad days.  This book good to show kids that everyone has bad days.  It doesn't matter who you are or where you live.

7. When Sophie Gets Angry- Really, Really Angry

By: Molly Bang

This book is colorful and helps children learn how to deal with their emotions.  Being angry can really upset a child and this book can help them to understand what they are feeling, and that it is ok.

8. The Rain Came Down

By: David Shannon

This book is about how a beautiful sunny day turns into a rainy loud day; one event at a time.  The pictures in this book are amazing and funny.  At the end of the book, one good event leads to another.  This book shows that one small good event can change the course of a day.

9. Frustrated (How I Feel)

By: Marcia Lenonard

This book helps to build a child's emotional intelligence.  It shows them how to recognize their emotions, label them and describe them.  Building up a child's emotional intelligence is very important.

10. The Chocolate-Covered-Cookie Tantrum

By: Deborah Blementhal

Little Sophie sees another child in the park with a cookie and wants one too.  Her mother will not give her what she wants, so she throws a horrible tantrum.  This book is good to show kids that they cannot always get everything they want, when they want it. 

As I said before, emotions are hard for everyone; adults and children.  Feelings of anger and frustration can be the most difficult to deal with because children have not necessarily been taught how to correctly process the emotion.  Books are a great way to teach children about emotions and how to identify, understand, process and deal with them.  Seeing a character go through something can help a child see that they are not alone.