book cover

I Am Angry

by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Robert Starling

Interest age: 2 to 5

Published by Walker Books, 2021

  • Picture books
  • Poetry and rhyme

About this book

The little blue cat in this book is angry. They’re so angry that they’d like to bully bees, boil words and grind up games, squash the moon and terrify the sun. We’ve all been there. However, after all that anger, the little blue cat feels pretty tired. Perhaps it’s time for bed.

This fun rhyming tale acknowledges the big emotions that little ones experience and enables 2 to 4 year-olds to find a vocabulary for the way they feel when they get cross. Michael Rosen writes at the beginning of the book that the text was inspired as he watched his youngest child get angry one day, and explores the idea that, when you’re very little, anger feels like it can take over the whole world. Also, he observes, much of the anger experienced by little ones is often related to wanting to be bigger. By gently laughing at these big rages, Rosen hopes that he can reassure children that even if anger sometimes feels big, it usually doesn’t last very long.

Robert Starling’s expressive and big illustrations are a perfect match for this lovely book, as is the nice large, bold font which makes this a super accessible, fun read for toddlers and preschoolers.

About the author

Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best loved writers and performance poets for children and adults. His first degree in English Literature and Language was from Wadham College, Oxford and he went on to study for an MA at the University of Reading and a PhD at the former University of North London, now London Metropolitan.

He is currently Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London where he co-devised and teaches critical approaches to reading on an MA in Children’s Literature, having done the same at Birkbeck, University of London. He has taught on MA courses in universities since 1994.

He was the Children’s Laureate from 2007 to 2009 and has published over 200 books for children and adults, including the recent bestseller Many Different Kinds of Love and On The Move.

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