What to Do When Your Temper Flares - Dawn Huebner - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Dawn Huebner

ILLUSTRATOR: Irma Ruggiero

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction, Self-help Guide

PUBLICATION DATE: January 7, 2025

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: An practical resource on anger management. Way more helpful than that ineffectual count-to-ten technique. Targeted at kids, but useful for everyone.

This is the revised edition of the original interactive self-help book by the same title, first published in 2007. It retains the key elements of the original and adds in strategies for mindfulness and updated advice for today’s issues.

I didn't pick this book to learn anger management techniques for my children, both of whom have a temper (which is normal) but not an explosive one (thank heavens!) This book was more for me. I've struggled with my temper since my childhood and instead of being taught how to manage those emotions, I was always rebuked and told to "stop it." (Ironic, isn't it? Parents lose their temper and scold us to keep a handle on our feelings when they are doing the same thing.🤷🏻‍♀️)

If you have been through the same problem of having runaway emotions (whether anger or fear or anxiety or anything else), you'll know that "stop it" is easier said than done. The only technique that I had heard for controlling temper was the ridiculous count-to-ten method. Frankly, when you've lost all control of yourself, you don't even remember to count, and on the rare occasion that you do, ten is nowhere near a good number to calm down the boil to a simmer. So this method was almost always useless for me. Now that I've read this book, I just wish someone had given it to me in my childhood.

I'm not at all a fan of self-help books because they are either vapid or they offer bland motivational advice that is hardly ever practical. One reason why I loved this book so much is that every single technique herein is accessible to little minds (and older ones as well). There’s no method that needs you to go to a specific location or get a specific object or implement a difficult routine. Every technique is easy and achievable if practised diligently.

The book doesn’t simply dole out advice in textual format. The learning is interactive, so there are various drawing and writing prompts along the way. The illustrations in the book complement the advice brilliantly. As they are in grayscale, they don’t steal focus from the core content.

Parents and caregivers need to begin with the detailed note addressed to them at the start as it clarifies the right approach to go through this book. I found this note very helpful.

As the book rightly says, anger isn't bad but we need to learn how to use it constructively rather than destructively. Thus every solution in the book isn’t towards quashing bad temper but on dealing with it in the right manner. I love this! Anger is a normal component of human emotions, and suppressing it can lead to all sorts of health issues. So a mindful handling of it will be beneficial not just to the person who has a loose fuse but also to those around them.

Much recommended. The language and techniques in this helpful guide would be perfect for readers aged 7+.

My thanks to Magination Press for providing the DRC of “What to Do When Your Temper Flares” via Edelweiss+. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.