Friday, February 26, 2021

Jax's Tail Twitches by David Powlison

Jax's Tail Twitches

Jax's Tail Twitches is part of the Good News for Little Hearts series. Each story in the series focuses on a real-life issue while entertaining children with cute animal stories of hope. Jax's Tail Twitches is written to help children deal with anger. Jax's tail twitches when he gets angry.

Jax's family is a family of squirrels living in their own tree. It's time to gather acorns for winter, so the whole family needs to help.

The day begins with Jax and his brother, Caspian, racing to the kitchen for breakfast. Jax becomes angry at Caspian for tripping him so that he can beat Jax to the kitchen.

Later on, while the family gathers the acorns from their tree, another squirrel family, the McNuffles, shows up and begins gathering acorns from Jax's family's tree. Papa Squirrel doesn't want to share his acorns with the McNuffles because the rule book says that each squirrel family must gather acorns from their own family tree.

While Papa and Mr. McNuffle argue over sharing acorns, Jax and Caspian race about. Baby Jolie takes a leap and lands in Papa Squirrel's acorn bag, scattering the acorns all around. Then Mama Squirrel remembers that her dinner is burning.

When Jax's family returns to their nest home, they are all angry for different reasons. Jax realizes that they are all angry because they didn't get what they wanted.

Jax's Tail Twitches by David Powlison

Jax's family members agree that they are all angry over selfish reasons. Papa Squirrel reminds his family that the Great Book says that anger does not produce the right and good life God wants us to have. They all agree that they acted in ways that were not right and they need God to help them with their anger. They need Jesus to forgive them and show them each where they were wrong. Then, they bowed their heads to pray.

The story wraps up when both squirrel families meet again at the bottom of the tree to finish gathering food for the winter. They admit to each other where they were wrong and they all ask for forgiveness. Then, they share a meal and food for the winter.

Jax's Tail Twitches is a sweet story that teaches children that we all get angry from time to time, but when we do get angry, it is important to ask God to show us any place where we are wrong. Then, we need to ask for forgiveness both from God and from the person we might have wronged in our anger.

The back of the book offers two helpful resources for helping families help their children with anger. There is a section called "Helping Your Child with Anger." This section has 9 points of advice for parents to help them help their children with anger.

Jax's Tail Twitches by David Powlison

At the very end of the book, there is a section of pocket Bible verse cards that children can cut out and carry in their pockets. When they feel angry, they can pull the cards from their pocket and read them for encouragement through times of trouble when they might feel angry.