The Color Monster: A Pop-Up Book of Feelings

A pigtailed, paper cutout girl assists a scribbly, googly-eyed monster in sorting his mixed-up emotions, represented by different colors, into jars. Sadness, no surprise, is blue; in the accompanying tableau, the monster sits with the girl on her bed, while twined string creates “rain” falling from pop-up clouds. When the monster is angry, he “blazes bright red,” and when he is calm, he turns green as he reclines in a pop-up hammock. Despite the odd and potentially unhealthy message about bottling up one’s emotions, Lllenas’s emphasis is on identifying emotions over constraining them, and a closing scene emphasizes that love can’t be contained. Ages 3–7. (Sept.)