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Item Barcode | Collection | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33607003310730 | Picture Books | BANG | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Three-time Caldecott Honor illustrator Molly Bang helps children solve problems by showing a different -- and highly effective -- approach: "I can't do it" becomes "I can't do it... yet."When Sophie can't solve a math puzzle, she feels upset and inadequate. "I CAN'T DO IT!" she shouts, expressing the frustration all of us feel when we try and fail. Will she ever be "smart" like her sister? Maybe she isn't smart at all.Luckily Sophie's teacher steps in. What does it mean to be smart? Using current, popular "mindset" techniques, Sophie's class is taught that we get smarter when we exercise our brains, such as when we work harder at solving a puzzle. Struggling to solve a problem doesn't mean "I can't do it!" Sophie and her classmates just can't do it... yet! Readers will cheer when Sophie finally prevails, and at the end of the day, she's confident and optimistic. At home, Sophie uses her new technique to help her dad solve a carpentry puzzle.In this third book about Sophie, Molly Bang again helps children deal with a challenging everyday issue, providing an opening to ask: What do you do when you think, "I can't!"?
Author Notes
Molly Bang was born in Princeton, New Jersey in 1943. After college, Bang taught English in Japan. She returned to the U.S and earned her graduate degree in East Asian Languages and Literatures, then worked in India, Bangladesh, and West Africa for Johns Hopkins, Unicef and Harvard. Her first books were translations of folktales, which she also illustrated.
Bang has received many awards and honors, including the prestigious Caldecott Honor Book Award three times, for The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher, Ten, Nine, Eight and When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry. She won the Giverny Award for Best Science Picture Book for Common Ground in 1998. Ten, Nine, Eight also won the ALA Notable Children's Book and When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry, won the Charlotte Zolotow Award. It was also an ALA Notable Book and a Jane Addams Children's Honor Book
Her titles include Nobody Particular: One Woman's Fight to Save the Bays, Tiger's Fall, Little Rat Sets Sail, My Light, and Picture This: Perception and Composition.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-3-Bang and her eponymous character have guided children through the emotional ups and downs of When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry and When Sophie's Feelings Are Really, Really Hurt, now address frustration and feelings of inadequacy when the child is unable to complete a tangram puzzle at home, then a math challenge at school. However, under the guidance of a teacher with a positive, can-do attitude who encourages her students to try harder and use the word "yet" when faced with a difficult challenge (as in, "I haven't solved it yet"), Sophie and classmates are introduced to a growth mind-set approach to problem solving. Readers and listeners can attempt to try the puzzle on their own ("build a bigger rectangle out of twelve small squares"), and will observe that there is more than one way to solve this particular challenge (and perhaps others) as evidenced in the story. As in other titles by this author/illustrator, vibrant colors form the backdrop of many spreads and the figures, outlined in these yellow, red, or green, radiate energy and emotion. An author's note discusses the book's origin and explains the difference between "fixed" and "growth" mind-sets. Endpapers include a picture of a tangram and a definition, and some of the animal shapes said to have been created "from traditional tangram puzzle pieces." VERDICT While purposeful, this book belongs on classroom and school library shelves and should be shared, especially with children who are easily frustrated.-Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sophie, the blonde child first seen in Bang's Caldecott Honor-winning When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry..., struggles with self-confidence and problem-solving in her third picture book. After her sister ridicules her for not being smart (Sophie is having trouble with a tangram puzzle), Sophie carries her negative emotions to school. Teacher Ms. Mulry explains to the students that people aren't "born smart," but become so by exercising their brains. Bang's kinetic art conveys Sophie's frustration through her furrowed brow and smudgy, downturned lips; orange and yellow outlines-a trademark of Bang's art-and bright, busy patterns suggest an overstimulating world. As Sophie and other students tackle a math puzzle that involves turning small squares into large rectangles, Bang gently reminds readers that learning is a gradual process, not a destination. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.