Blaine Blows His Top--Book review and Free Printable

School has started down here in NC, along with the passage of tropical storm remnants.  Life goes on as usual!  

A speech-language pathologist, Bethany Vigilante, asked me to take a look at her book, Blaine Blows His Top, and review it.  This seemed like a great book to use with a social skills group (4/5th grade and middle school) so I did!

The character in this book is a young adult who works at a fitness center.  He and the other characters are realistically drawn, bordering on anime, and would be appealing to the pre-teen and teenage sect. He obviously has many frustrating events that happen during the day until it all reaches a climax where he lets his temper out.  The book is written in a catchy rhyme, and is sure to both entertain the students and act as a springboard in a discussion about identifying zones of regulation.  (The character, Blaine, moves through the zones.)

The whole book is great, but I like the ending where Blaine reflects about ways to avoid a blow up in the future.

 "I think it's important to say what I feel

 and not let it build up into an ordeal." 

Maria, Blaine's friend, also reflected on the impact of her own behavior (which ties into Social Thinking where students are taught about the impact of their behaviors on others):

 "My complaining had finally caused you to crack,

 I pushed you too far and you flew off the track."

I love using books such as this with social thinking groups, or with any student who has self-regulation difficulties, and it fits perfectly with a self regulation scale that I had published some time back.  

I have since revised this scale with the help of a fabulous occupational therapist, Tamika Harris, and we have added teacher strategies for helping students get to the 'green' zone.

I highly recommend that you purchase this book, "Blaine Blows His Top", and use it with this scale to teach and reinforce the concepts in self-regulation.  

If you want to download the self-regulation scale pictured above, in pdf, click here.

If you are thinking of purchasing this book, it's available on Amazon. 

disclaimer:  I was given a copy of this book to review but otherwise, gain nothing financially.  This blog contains a link to Amazon.