Doodle’s tantrums have become quite legendary. So much so, that I swear his older sister’s attempts at one-upsmanship in this department, may result in a bulk purchase of ear plugs.

But he is two and he’s learning, thanks to a newly placed time-out chair.

The girl, on the other hand, is old enough to learn about keeping her anger under control.

I was raised with the philosophy that feelings are neither right nor wrong, but there is an appropriate time and place for expressing them. The middle of the grocery store is not one of them.

She’s not THIS bad, but, she’s had her moments.

I’ve made some progress with her, but sometimes, she needs to get the message from a source other than me in order for it to really sink in.

So, when Joy Berry Enterprises contacted me about reviewing some of their titles, I scanned through their copious topic list and more than a few titles caught my eye. They were gracious enough to send me “Let’s Talk About Feeling Angry” and “Teach Me About Bedtime”, both by, you guessed it, Joy Berry (you’re shocked, I’m sure.).

“Let’s Talk About Feeling Angry” follows a little girl named Maria through the eyes and voice of a dog named Max. Max observes Maria deal with multiple conflicts with her brother, breaking toys, hitting, kicking walls, and the like. Max walks Maria through more constructive ways to deal with the conflict like talking about it, bringing in grown-up mediation, and (one of my personal faves) kicking and screaming into your pillow in your bedroom.

I used this book for Boo’s 20-minutes-a-day reading project this weekend. Even though she was really focused on actually reading the words, the message did sink in through. It made the point without getting preachy and the pictures with conversation bubbles kept her engaged. After reading it, she wanted to try the companion CD out. The CD read the story to her with prompts telling her to turn the page. She happily followed along and even boogied to the “Feeling Angry” song that followed.

The text reminded me a lot of the messages conveyed in books like Roger Hargreaves’ Mr. Men series and other character-building books of my youth that attempted to teach concepts of sharing, humility, and self control (hmmm, I guess we can all see how well those worked, eh?).

The “Let’s Talk About” series is targeted for ages 4-5, but it was good reading practice for my nearly six-year-old and the message was quite clear.

Doodle was not to be left out of the fun and got to read “Teach Me About Bedtime.” Our bedtime struggles have vastly improved over the last month, but there are still some nights he has a tough time settling down. He is two, after all.

The board book is told through the point of view of a two or three-year-old girl as she goes through her day playing herself to exhaustion. We see her naptime and bedtime routine. We see her throw a tantrum (Trust me, a 2-D tantrum really does lose something in translation, but I get enough of the real deal that I wasn’t missing the live action.).

I loved the no-so subliminal “sleep in your own bed” messages of the text as well as the reminder that they can sleep in other venues as well. My favorite page, though, was this one…

Yes, Doodle. Mommy likes to sleep in. Past six. Please. (I KNOW! I am SO demanding!)

This one also came with a CD too, but it unfortunately did more to wind him up than down. Want Doodle to dance? Just add music. Brahms is his Suicidal Tendencies. A playpen is nothing but a one-man mosh pit for this dude. We did eventually get him down and without the use of duct tape! Woo Hoo!

Did it work? Well, we read the book Friday night and Saturday morning both kids slept past 6 a.m. and I did hear Doodle playing in his room for a full 15 minutes before creeping into my chamber and insisting on using my bed (with me in it) as a trampoline.

Joy Berry has a variety of book series for ages 1-12 available at her site. From what I’ve seen, they are well worth the money, especially since you’re probably going to get lots of mileage passing these on from kid to kid.

Good, bad, or ugly? Good. Definitely. Good.