The Color Monster
Anna Llenas
In this gentle introduction to identifying emotions, poor Color Monster’s feelings are all jumbled up. Luckily, a friend stands by to help sort them out by dividing them up into jars. The friend helps Color Monster single out happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and calm, describing each feeling and pairing it with a color. Happiness, for example, is a feeling “yellow like the sun,” that makes you “laugh, jump, dance and play,” and that “you want to share . . . with everyone.” The dramatic pop-up illustrations, saturated in the colors attached to each feeling, highlight Color Monster’s expression and body language, helping to convey the essence of each emotion. Importantly, feelings aren’t judged or ranked here, simply recognized and named. Just when Color Monster and their friend have identified them all, another feeling pops up for readers to guess, signified by the color pink, hearts, flowers, and a look of adoration spreading across Color Monster’s face. Toddlers and preschoolers will love this one, which is well-suited to both story time and one-on-one sharing. (RLR)