No one is angry today by Toon Tellegen and Marc Boutavant

No One is Angry Today is a picture storybook written by Toon Tellegen who was born in the Netherlands. The book has been translated into English and provides ten short stories discussing responses to anger. The interactions between the animals and how they manage their feelings of anger is at times confusing and unusual. Some of the stories are reasonably gentle and others are quite confronting, particularly the first story, 'The Firebelly Toad and the Hedgehog'. The bullying behaviour of the toad is both violent and completely unexplainable. His unrestrained anger and the nasty actions that follow are trying to provoke the other animals to match his feelings, but they almost appear shocked by what has transpired, and their reactions are more muted. Each story appears to portray a different level of anger and how each animal deals with it. For younger readers this book would be better shared with an adult as there would need to be further explanations and follow-up discussions. The illustrations by French artist, Marc Boutavant, are both appealing and complementary to the text. Anger wears many disguises and is often misunderstood and hidden. This book may be trying to open more dialogue about this complex feeling.

Themes: Animals, Anger, Short Stories.

Kathryn Beilby