The Red Beast

Controlling Anger in Children with Asperger's Syndrome

K.I. Al-Ghani
Illustrated by Haitham Al-Ghani

Hardback: £12.99 / $21.95

2008, 216mm x 279.4mm / 8.5in x 11in, 48pp
ISBN: 978-1-84310-943-3, BIC 2: VFJD JNS YXL

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Deep inside everyone, a red beast lies sleeping.

When it is asleep, the red beast is quite small, but when it wakes up, it begins to grow and grow.

This is the story of a red beast that was awakened.

Rufus is in the school playground when his friend John kicks a ball that hit him in the stomach, and wakes up the sleeping red beast: `I hate you - I'm gonna get you!'. The red beast doesn't hear the teacher asking if he's okay. It doesn't see that John is sorry - how can Rufus tame the red beast?

This vibrant fully illustrated children's storybook is written for children aged 5+, and is an accessible, fun way to talk about anger, with useful tips about how to 'tame the red beast' and guidance for parents on how anger affects children with Asperger's Syndrome.

Blog posts

VIDEO: A preview of children’s book ‘The Red Beast’ by Kay and Haitham Al-Ghani

23 August 2011

Last April, JKP celebrated World Autism Awareness Day 2011 at the V&A Museum of Childhood’s special autism event and exhibition.  The highlight of this special day was a reading of The Red Beast: Controlling Anger in Children with Asperger’s Syndrome by the author, Kay Al-Ghani, and illustrator, Haitham Al-Ghani. Haitham read the book to a crowd of children and[... read more]

JKP celebrates World Autism Awareness Day 2011 at the V&A Museum of Childhood

1 April 2011

We are thrilled to be celebrating World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) at the V&A Museum of Childhood in London on Saturday, 2nd April! The day promises to be action-packed with plenty to do and see at the museum’s Making SENse exhibit - including a special reading of The Red Beast at 2 pm! Author Kay Al-Ghani will sign in Makaton[... read more]

Kay and Haitham Al-Ghani on ‘Learning About Friendship’ – Stories to support social skills training for children with ASD in the classroom

8 November 2010

"One small boy in my class was having great trouble going on school outings because he would not wear a seat belt. The bus driver came to tell me that he would not be allowed to go on any more trips. I thought this was rather harsh and so the very next day I told my class a story about Tedrick the teddy who would not wear a seat belt...We role-played the parts of the driver, the teachers and the other children on the bus. I emphasised how happy the driver was when all the children wore their seat belts and I asked the boy in question if he would mind taking Tedrick on the next trip. Guess what, that boy was the first one on the bus doing up his own and Tedrick’s seat belt!"

Kay and Haitham Al-Ghani on creating The Red Beast

15 September 2008

"I began to explore ways of getting the children to visualise their anger as a sort of beast that was very difficult to control. In this way the anger was depersonalised. After all, we are all capable of becoming angry, it is how we deal with those feelings that matters. Children with ASD already have a great deal of anxiety to cope with in a normal school day, and so the chances of awakening the 'beast' are increased. I thought about the methods I used to calm children and incorporated these into a story. However, this story really came to life when I asked my son, Haitham, to illustrate it for me."

By the same authors

Author information

• K.I. Al-Ghani
• Haitham Al-Ghani

Subject areas

• Asperger Syndrome, Autism and other Syndromes

Collections

• Key Titles for Speech and Language Therapists

Keywords

• anger management,
• Asperger syndrome,
• autism,
• challenging behaviour,
• child psychiatry,
• child psychology,
• children,
• high functioning autism,
• inclusive classroom,
• occupational therapy,
• special education,
• speech and language therapy

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