I Was So Mad. By Mercer Mayer (1983)

I Was So Mad, by Mercer Mayer is one of my all time favorite children's books. I love the Little Critter series, and can remember being a young child reading these books with my mom before bed. Whenever we were at a book store or another place where I saw a Little Critter book, I just had to have it when I was a child. My mother saved these books (along with a number of others from my childhood library), and she has given them to my children. My son Jonathan always gets a kick seeing Bridgid written in a child's hand writing in the inside cover. The Little Critter is so easily relatable to most little kids. In this book he was getting so mad by normal everyday kid stuff, but it really is the pictures that bring this story to life. While I was student teaching I used this book as part of a character education lesson on dealing with frustration. This was a perfect book because the words were simple, the kids could relate to the story, and they could see through the illustrations how the Little Critter was feeling.

About the Author:  Mercer Mayer was born in Arkansas in 1943, and he moved to and went to college in Hawaii. He began illustrating books in 1966 (and along the way wrote many of them too) and has published over 300 books! Very impressive!! Most of his books are about things that happened to him as a young child, and he also uses things that have happened to his children and grandchildren. He now lives in New England, and there together, he and his wife Gina write the Little Critter books. In 2007, he was chosen as the "Artist of the Year" at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C..
http://www.littlecritter.com/about_mercer_mayer2.html
Genre: Character Education, Fiction, Humor
Grade Level: Preschool and up
Theme: Dealing with frustration
Pre-reading activity: (2nd grade):  We will have a class discussion on frustration. Then we will make a word web. Students will add about times that they felt frustrated and why these things made them feel frustrated.
Post-reading activity: After reading, we will have a class discussion about appropriate responses to being frustrated or dealing with disappointment. Students will then take the Frustration word web and write about one example of feeling frustrated and an appropriate response and then they will share with a partner.