A Terrible Thing Happened

by Margaret M Holmes

Paperback, 2000

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Collections

Children's Books, Flint/ Genesee, Body Awareness

Publication

Magination Press (2000), Edition: 1, 32 pages

Description

After Sherman sees something terrible happen, he becomes anxious and then angry, but when a counselor helps him talk about these emotions he feels better.

User reviews

LibraryThing member BeulahChurchLibrary

This is a gentle and positive book for children who have witnessed something disturbing--whether it is abuse, an accident, violence, a natural disaster or any other trauma. The book is about Sherman the raccoon who saw something awful. The book never tells us what he saw, but it does tell us what

happened to him afterward. He tried to forget about it, and instead he has stomach aches, bad dreams, he acts out meanly at school, and seems to be always in trouble. There is an afterword for parents and caregivers with more suggestions for helping traumatized children.

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LibraryThing member KerryMarsh

This is a lovely book for helping a child deal with a scary event. Something scary happens to Sherman and at first he is ok, but then he gets angry and frightened and cant stop thinking about the scary thing. He is introduced to a counsellor who helps him to deal with his feelings about the scary

thing. And soon he is feeling much better. Because you never actually find out what the scary thing is, this book lends itself to any myriad of trauma's - a very useful too.

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LibraryThing member Salsabrarian

This book can be of value for adults who care about a child who has witnessed a traumatic event and is suffering because of it. We know only that the raccoon Sherman Smith has seen "the most terrible thing," (depicted as a mass of dark squiggles in a thought bubble) but it is not defined, making

this ideal for sharing in a variety of situations (violence, weather disasters, abuse, etc.) and for opening discussion.

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LibraryThing member ebrossette

Sherman Smith saw something terrible recently. He tried to get his mind of it, but it kept coming back What he saw gave him bad dreams, tummy aches, trouble sleeping, and it made him very, very angry. He was so angry he got in trouble at school. Finally, he works with a therapist to draw his

feelings, and eventually draw out the terrible thing. He starts to feel a lot better.
I like the authors choice to not name a specific trauma, and rather show the event as a dark cloud. This makes it accessible for any child who has experienced trauma to relate to it. I also liked his physical reactions to trauma were described, because I feel like that is easier for children to identify.

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