Tor Åge Bringsværd

Riley, the little girl whose experiences getting up were chronicled in When Two Get Up, and whose going-to-bed routine is depicted in When Two Say Goodnight, here explores what it is like when two people get angry at one another. As she and her mother have an argument, the narrative imagines what various creatures and objects, from elephants to balloons, would do when angry. Eventually the narrative returns to Riley and Mommy, showing them making up...

Originally published in Norwegian as Når to er sinte på hverandre, this picture-book about anger is one of a number of titles from author Tor Åge Bringsværd and illustrator Tina Soli's "When Two..." series. Of the three I have read - the three to be translated into English thus far - this is my favorite. Like the others, it is entertaining and imaginative, but it also has more emotional significance, no doubt owing to the theme. I appreciated the lighthearted handling of the subject of anger, something most young children struggle to control, and thought the observation that when we are angry "we almost don't know what we are saying," was well made. The narrative encourages children in handling their anger in less hurtful ways, but doesn't stigmatize them when they fail to do so. The artwork is colorful and cute, and Soli continues to use colorful fonts in interesting ways. Recommended to anyone looking for stories about anger for the picture-book set.… (more)