The Science of Being Angry

Nicole Melleby's The Science of Being Angry is an honest family story for 10 year olds about a girl whose temper keeps getting ahead of her.

What happens

Joey is eleven and one of triplets. Her brothers Colton and Thomas are identical and she's the odd one out. She has two mums, a big half-brother called Benny and, lately, a lot of anger that she can't explain.

It starts with a dare. It's too hot to sleep, so Joey drags her brothers out to the closed apartment pool at night. When a security guard shines a torch in her face, she punches him and he falls in the pool. A week later the whole family is squashed into a motel room, Benny has gone to stay with his dad, and everyone knows whose fault it is.

Then her science class picks genetics for its big project. Nature versus nurture. Joey knows exactly which half of her came from Mama, and it isn't the angry half. So she starts to wonder about the donor who made up the other half of her. Could her temper be in her genes?

You're right there with Joey the whole time, and you'll probably love her even when she's being awful. She throws Parmesan cheese across the dinner table. She pushes away Layla, her old best friend, for reasons she won't admit even to herself (she likes Layla, and that's the whole problem). And she lies awake wondering whether there's a limit to how much her family can love her.

The grown-ups are lovely too. Mama wants to fix everything with breathing exercises and lavender oil. Mom is sterner but calls Joey "Little Growl" and tickles her until she laughs.

Joey does hit people and there's some swearing. How the triplets were made through IVF is explained simply and matter-of-factly. It's never gloomy, though. It's a really kind book about anger that doesn't make Joey the villain.

If you've got a reader with big feelings who sometimes scares themselves, this one could mean a lot to them. Who knew a science project could matter this much?

What to read next

If this one hits home, Nicole Melleby's How to Become a Planet follows Pluto, a girl who loves space and is dealing with depression, whose feelings are so big one night that her mum has to break her bedroom door down.