List Price: $16.99
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Age Range: 4-8
Rating:

Emily’s Tiger is a story about a little girl named Emily who is angry but “doesn’t mean to be.” She doesn’t like hair cuts, eating vegetables, and other normal parts of a young child’s life. When she gets angry, she finds her inner tiger coming out and causing all sorts of chaos. Then her Granny comes to visit and shares a little secret with Emily. . .she has an inner tiger, too. Granny turns into a tiger for Emily, but then explains that she has learned to be a happy tiger who does fun things while in tiger form. By the end of the book, with the help of Granny the tiger, Emily has learned to control her temper a bit and be a “happy tiger.”

QUALITY

This book is a hardback book and its pages are made of a high quality, thick paper stock. The illustrations are very vivid and colorful, and just really fun to look at.

THE STORY

While the end of the story is very endearing in that Emily learns that everyone feels angry sometimes, even Granny, the beginning is not a good lesson. I understand that the author is trying to show the wild and sometimes tumultuous temper of a toddler, but the antics of Emily’s tiger and the seeming ineptitude of her parents in dealing with it are a little disconcerting. For example, with each outburst, her mother or father simply seem exasperated and say something like, “What are we going to do with you?” Kids need boundaries and Emily’s parents seem unwilling or unable to set any. When she angrily knocks her vegetables off the table because she doesn’t want to eat them, the illustration shows her dad meekly cleaning them up as she looks on, without consequences. At the very least, teaching a child responsibility for her actions by having her help in the cleanup would have been appropriate. The story basically shows a family that has no idea how to discipline or even set boundaries for a child until Granny shows up and teaches Emily how to tame her inner beast. This is not a lesson I want to teach my own child.

BOTTOM LINE

While “Emily’s Tiger” is a book with beautiful illustrations and presents an interesting anger management concept, it leaves a lot to be desired. I commend the author for her openness in dealing with the anger that all of us inevitably feel in life. The healthy idea that feeling our emotions to the fullest and not stuffing them deep inside is a good thing is clearly her intention. The part that’s lacking is the separation of emotions and behavior. Perhaps someone with a different parenting style would enjoy the story more, but most parenting experts will tell you that kids without limits are not happy kids.