What Are You So Grumpy About? by Tom Lichtenheld

Do you have a kid that likes to be grumpy (or atleast it seems that way)? Then maybe your child needs to read What Are You So Grumpy About? by Tom Lichtenheld.

This silly book is full of excuses as to why someone could be grumpy. Each page asks a question as to why. The first page asks "did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?" The other ones can be silly to 'legitimate', like sitting on the toilet after not having noticed that the seat was up or having your sibling touch you (yes truly awful). And as you go through the book you finally get the worst of all...

That someone tickled you when you were grumpy and you forgot what you were grumpy about. I loved it. It can be so true. When my son is particularly whiny sometimes it really does work to tickle him and get him laughing and then he will whine to stop and my husband or I is able to get him out of his mood.

The theme of this book is so cute. I remember when I was a child my sister used to have the pouty face all the time and we'd tease her about it. I think this book would have been wonderful for her. I think it is geared towards children aged 4-8. Although if you have a grumpy 3 year old they might like it too.

I read this with my 2 year old and I think he could tell I was having fun with it and he seemed to enjoy the story.

Lichtenheld both writes and illustrates this book and his illustrations are quite wacky and full of good humor. The writing is sort of drawn, it isn't a font, it is colorful and artistic. Sometimes slightly hard to read actually, but it just adds to the uniqueness of the pages. The grumpy faces are so fun. The boy falling in the toilet shows just his feet sticking out. The finger touching the sibling has helpful arrows pointing to different parts like "germs", "cooties", and "actual physical contact". The pictures fill the entire page and are bright, colorful, engaging, and very silly. Some are quite absurd. All of them made me smile with the hilarity of the situations in which children will get grumpy.

Overall I liked this book a lot. It has a cute theme with an upbeat tone that will be enjoyable for both children and adults reading it together. And the illustrations really bring the questions to life.