Angry Dragon
PreSchool-Grade 1–After his mother tells him "NO," a young boy becomes so angry that he feels as though he is a stone: "I feel trapped inside that stone. I just can't stop myself." His rage grows until he turns into a fiery dragon that destroys everything in its path. When the fury recedes–as it always does–the dragon feels shame and sadness. As tears put out the flames, the creature disappears and the child is back in his parents' loving embrace. The authenticity of the boy's emotions is clearly conveyed in both the text and the artwork. In the faux-naïve oil paintings, Goossens uses the texture of the canvas to create additional depth. The characters are drawn with clean lines in muted colors to keep the focus on each interestingly composed page. Use this offering along with Molly Bang'sWhen Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry(Blue Sky, 1999), Rachel Vail'sSometimes I'm Bombaloo(Scholastic, 2002), and Maurice Sendak'sWhere the Wild Things Are(HarperCollins, 1988).–Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at District of Columbia Public LibraryCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.