Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry: Critical Review

Campbell, Bebe. Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry. New York: Puffin Books, 2003.

Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry is a book about a young girl whose mother has bi-polar disorder. Readers witness the hi’s and low’s associated with this disorder, of this mother through the mixed interactions with her elementary aged daughter. This book ventures away for the theme of hope and remission. It enlightens readers on behaviors associated with bi-polar disorder and coping mechanisms.  In this book, the protagonist is not the one with the disorder; she is more so the victim of her mothers disorder. The overall ambiance of the book is realistic, it is not uplifting through out; it has a mixture of happy moments and sad moments.  This is another book that I feel would need further explanation and instruction to a younger audience in order for the audience to grasp the book for its intended purpose. Images are something that stand out in this book, these images do a great job of “ telling the story” (Prater, 16). When the mother is in one of her low moods, there are pictures where shadow’s overcasts the door, the mother is shown yelling, the daughter is crying in corners and the overall impressionistic art is gloomy. In higher or happier moments in the story, the colors used in the pictures are bright and vibrant and the pictures portray positive things. One of the biggest means for comparison is that with the mother is having a good day, the daughter’s hair is neatly combed and she is happy. When the mother is having a bad day, her hair is untamed and her facial expressions are bland.  The author of this book can be viewed as an outsider; I can provide no knowledge as to how informed she is on the issue of mental illness. However, the illustrator E.B. Lewis is “informed,” he has a graduated degree in special education and has worked for mentally retarded and emotionally impaired children and adults for over 12 years. I believe that children who have parents with mental illness can draw strength and seek refuge in this book.

**This image was retrieved from www.amazon.com

Additional Resources

Prater, Mary Anne. "Teaching Students About Learning Disabilities Through Children's Literature." Intervention In School And Clinic 42(2006): 14-24.