The Color Monster Goes to School

After the girl who befriended the anxious, eponymous star of The Color Monster tells him that he’s about to start school, he again turns various colors as he grapples with new emotions. Will “this thing you call school” be a “dangerous place full of fierce animals,” a “magic cloud in the sky,” or a “scary forest of traps”? The apprehensive monster fills his backpack with an arsenal of gear, including quicksand boots and anti-alien goggles. Though the girl reassures him they’re not necessary, she ends up dragging the fearful fellow feet-first to school. She sticks around to watch over him as he bumbles through the day, hogging the playground swing, chomping on a book at story time, and unraveling toilet paper in the loo, before settling down and finding his rainbow-hued niche in the classroom. With amusing flourishes, Llenas’s mixed-media art reveals the raucous goings-on, quite literally in living color. Ages 4–8. (July)