The Words Hurt: Helping Children Cope with Verbal Abuse (Let's Talk) Paperback – January 1, 1997

The first thing I disliked was the hideous font. It's a font I've never seen before and it is very hard on the eyes. I had trouble finishing the book because the font was giving me a headache.I didn't care for the illustrations. I found them a little weird and creepy.The author needs to learn proper usage of the semi colon,the ellipsis and the hyphen. And I have no idea what this word is supposed to be--"shoooh."It tries to be written as a poem but is done so poorly that it is difficult to read it as such. I was 2/3 through the book before I even realized that the paragraphs ended with a rhyming word.I don't like that when the angry father has been forced to realize that he needs to deal with his anger, he reflects on how his own father was cruel. This is not the case in the situation of the family of the boy that I bought this book for and I am bothered by the assumption. I am even more bothered by the happy ending that probably has a slim-to-none chance of happening with most families. Abusers rarely feel remorse and seek help just from being confronted. I'm afraid that this book will give false hope to a child and make them think that other abused children are experiencing happy endings while they, themselves, are not.The premise of this book is good but I think it could have been much better. I bought it because it was all I could find as a book to give to a verbally abused child. What a shame that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of books to help abused adults but virtually nothing for kids.

First the good: the writer wrote in a way that was all encompassing for how anger and verbal abuse/yelling/uncontrolled anger effects a child and the people around the child. The use of words and simple poetry made me cry. Very powerful.The reason i returned it: the descriptions and situations were too heavy for the 4 year old i had in mind; also too wordy to hold his attention. Maybe change the age suggestion to 6 and older?

The first half of this book was very good and very true to the pain caused by emotional abuse. However, it makes me cringe every time a story ends with the abusive individual being confronted, either by another person or child and then that makes everything okay. I think that is a false message.

This has been a helpful book to use in my clinical work with children. Verbal and emotional abuse can be difficult to label with young children, but this book offers a great story with opportunities to ask questions and explore a child's experiences and feelings.

I don't care for the pictures but it does get the idea of verbal abuse across ok. I think ordering more than one book on the subject is a better idea.

I really liked this book, it helped me as a frustrated parent and my older child whom tends to get into a lot of trouble. After reading this book to her (and crying a good bit) we both agreed to try harder to be better. The illustrations are a bit odd, but I like it.

Too wordy. Lots of words are used that can be too confusing for younger kids.

This book describes really well, in pictures and a compelling story, why parental anger is a big problem where a kid's temper tantrums are not. I read it with my son, and it really helped us talk about why I have had to upset his part-time father by confronting his anger issues directly.

Good book for anyone working with children