The Quarreling Book

This is a wonderful book for all ages. It is an excellent tool for teaching students that all actions are far reaching and effect much more than we ever realize.

I have found The Quarreling Book to be a most effective story for 2nd and 3rd graders. To me, this book is not so much about quarreling, but more about emotions and feelings. This book is delightfully written by well-known children's author, Charlotte Zolotow with illustrations by Arnold Lobel. It really holds children's attention and helps them understand how we all "pass on" our feelings, for good or ill, to the people around us. In the classroom, I follow up with a discussion of specific strategies for emotionally healthy ways to deal with bad feelings. I would highly recommend this book to teachers and parents alike.

This book was a frequent bedtime reading for me as a kid, and it was one of my mother's favorites, too. As a middle child in a loving, but often frazzled family, I easily understood and sympathized with the quarrels of this family. Zolotow paints a picture of a very loving and typical family that makes all of us who bicker from time to time realize how normal we are. More importantly, it reminds everyone that their grumpiness toward others only spurs on more bad feelings, but, thankfully, a little kindness goes a long way, too.