I Am a Tornado

I Am a Tornado is a terrific social-emotional learning book. The story is told while a tornado is formed and picks up a cow in its cyclone. Cow tries to understand why Tornando is upset. As the story unfolds, Tornado describes how angry he feels when he destroys things. In the end, Tornado calms down thanks to Cow's patient and empathetic response.

What I Liked: This is a fun read-aloud with lots of opportunities to act out Tornado's anger. Additionally, I liked how the illustrations showed Tornado speaking in bold letters, while Cow spoke in a smaller brown font. It enforces the contrast between Tornado being big and loud and Cow being calm and steady. This story is very well written and explains how anger feels while also showing how to be a good friend and listener when someone is upset.

What Left Me Wanting More: The story has a bit of science in it, but I would have appreciated some more details about actual tornadoes.

I Am a Tornado is a book that can teach young readers about big emotions and how to control them.

I AM A TORNADO is an engaging picture book about anger and dealing with tough emotions. A tornado has formed and is coming to pick up cow. Cow understands how the tornado feels and talks to it about its emotions and how it seems angry as it picks up and tosses a house and wants to the same to people (who the cow talks into giving the tornado some space). As they talk, tornado begins to settle down, feeling heard by Cow.

What I loved: This was such an interesting concept. For little ones who tantrum, their big emotions can make them feel like a tornado - like making a lot of noise, yelling, lashing out at those nearby, and even throwing things. Tornado embodies all that as it crashes around and throws houses, picking up animals, and threatening to throw people too. Cow recognizes that Tornado is feeling some tough and overwhelming emotions, remaining calm and talking to it, something that ultimately calms it down. The story ends with them spending time together as Tornado begins to shrink and turn back into wind.

While the focus of the story is certainly on dealing with emotions, listening to others, and friendship, it also includes some facts about tornadoes and how they form and why, such as about the types of air that go into them. This adds to the educational factor. With the simple but colorful illustrations and expressive Tornado and Cow, the images capture the story well. Combined with the text that is in the form of dialogue, and this ends up being quite an entertaining read that children will really enjoy, both for the plot that resonates and the clever storyline.

What left me wanting more: As a small thing, it would have been helpful to give tips or tools for how to calm down from big emotions to help children learn new techniques. On the flip side, it did give some great information in terms of how to handle when others are angry/upset in that Cow remained calm, recognized the emotions, stayed there for their new friend, and helped to communicate with others about what was happening.

Final verdict: Overall, I AM A TORNADO is a clever picture book that deals with big emotions and the power of listening.