There is so much you can do with The Colour Monster from an educational perspective.

It’s a great tool in the classroom to help children learn empathy, how they can help others handle the negative emotions. It’s absolutely ideal for children with learning difficulties, anxiety or autism who may find their emotions overwhelming and confusing at times. So, who is this book for? Or more accurately who isn’t it for? This is the perfect introduction to emotions for very young children. The monster’s facial features and posture emphasise each feeling, which again can open discussions with children, on how you recognise someone who may be feeling angry or sad etc. It’s modern and fun! Each colour and emotion is really clearly defined so as not to confuse children. Because of this, the artwork has a depth to it, so the images and lusciously bright colours leap off the page at you. Set upon a plain white background, a cardboard collage effect has been used to create all the characters and other elements of the book. The illustrations are one of my favourite aspects of this book. She also explains how the good emotions will feel, how to identify them. The little twist at the end is also a delightful thing.įor each of the negative emotions, the monster’s friend explains how she can help him through it, either by holding his hand, or being beside him. For many people (in particular children) this is the best way to understand and get to grips with an intangible thing. It’s not necessarily a new concept, but it’s such a great one, to associate a feeling with a visual element such as colour.

We have yellow for happiness, blue for sadness, red for anger, black for fear and green for calm. Each of the main emotions are addressed, defined very clearly and associated with its own, perfectly chosen, colour. So, the monster’s friend, helps him identify and separate each emotion out.

The poor monster arrives at the beginning of the book feeling every emotion and completely confused by it all. The Colour Monster is an examination of emotions and feelings. Actually, add to that a pinch of emotional guidance and we’re there. Yes, I am partial to a monster based book, and I also LOVE colours, so there couldn’t be anything much more perfect as far as I’m concerned. Written and illustrated by Anna Llenas and published by Templar Publishing. However, the paperback non-pop-up version has just arrived, and I am very very excited to show it to you. Yet somehow I shamefully missed actually reading it. I was aware a little while ago, of a colourful pop-up book doing the rounds.

The colour monster board book