Storm Goliath by James Sellick and Craig Shuttlewood

Storm Goliath is a brightly illustrated picture book from the Dealing with Feeling series. The book tells the tale of one very angry gorilla called Goliath who finds it hard to manage his anger. Even the smallest things can set him off such as birds singing or the warthog whining. He is not a settled gorilla and once his anger sets in, he is destructive and very unkind. The detailed and expressive illustrations manage to convey the range of emotions that Goliath is expressing and the use of capital letters to shout the words to the reader allows the emotions to be felt.

Goliath is feeling BIG feelings as do so many children nowadays. They find it hard to self-regulate these emotions but as Goliath shows us it can happen with practice. The descriptions of hanger – anger made worse by hunger and sanger – anger expressed with sadness mixed in - are important words to share with children.

This book would be a valuable tool to share with children who are struggling to contain feelings of anger. My only personal concern is the use of the words ‘shut up’ in the first couple of pages. If I was reading it out aloud I would change it to ‘be quiet’.

There are teacher notes available.

Themes: Social Skills, Big Feelings, Anger, Friends.

Kathryn Beilby