Book Review: “The Sour Grape” by Jory John and Pete Oswald

Recommended reading age: 5 to 8 (though kids of all ages can enjoy reading this with their families)

What Makes This One of the Best Children’s Books

This warrants mentioning right away: “The Sour Grape” isn’t about just a sour grape.

It’s about a grape of wrath – or a grape who constantly feels wrath, anyway.

And I understand him. We all occasionally feel vexed by someone else’s behavior, and sometimes these frustrations can fester. Some people even tend to obsess, until fury consumes their thoughts.

Fortunately, “The Sour Grape” pointedly shows children how to prevent just that.

In this carefully constructed and meaningful book — part of the acclaimed series by Jory John and Pete Oswald — readers follow one grape’s emotional evolution from constant rage to a healthy state of controlling his emotions and letting the small stuff go, so he can fully live his life.

When we meet the story’s protagonist, an adorable grape, anger dominates his life. If someone slights him in the smallest way, he seethes. He snaps. He nurses a grudge like it’s his own young.

We discover this discontent was borne from a heart-wrenching incident at his birthday party, which soured his view on all other fruits in general.

But eventually, when the grape makes a mistake and someone treats him in kind — snapping and judging without an ounce of forgiveness or understanding — he sees it for the foolishness it is. 

The grape has an epiphany that makes this book a must-read for families: constantly raging over every grievance is a waste of energy, and accomplishes nothing.

With his newfound perspective, the grape proceeds with providing lovely demonstrations of how to respond to irksome scenarios in a healthy way.

I can offer a full list of all of this book’s benefits. Not only does it provide kids with crystal-clear examples of how to manage anger, but it emphasizes how forgiveness, gratitude and kindness all dovetail in achieving a peaceful state of mind.

This story’s sincere insights into anger management will serve young readers all their lives.

Added to that, author Jory John rolls out this fruitful tale with fanciful phrasing that will surely expand children’s vocabularies. And Pete Oswald’s cheerful, pastel-infused illustrations will keep kids’ eyes glued to the page.

I’m confident any family reading this book will feel far more sweet than sour about its message.

How My Child Reacted to This Book

My son, currently in preschool, simply gobbled up the juicy details of this book (like the grape’s backstory of growing on a vine with 3,000 siblings). He also laughed aloud at the silly slights that trigger the grape’s rage, like a mustard spill and an extremely entangled dog leash.

While my son understands the overall message of the book, I suspect it will be a few years before he’s old enough to put the story’s important lessons to practice. Kids in elementary school might glean a bit more from reading it.

Personally speaking: I can honestly say that I think of this book in moments of frustration, and it helps me to move on quickly.

Potential Conversations to Pair with This Book

It goes without saying that this book can be incredibly useful for speaking with kids about managing anger.

I pointed out to my son how breezily the grape shrugs off minor annoyances and rises above frustrating situations. I also chatted about different solutions for when we feel upset, like using our words, and calming down by taking deep breaths.

Hopefully more of these talks, and more rereads of this book, will help cement these ideas.

More Children’s Books Like This

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