Book Review| Color Monster

Have you read The Color Monster?

“The Color Monster” By Anna Llenas is a great mental health book for kids.

I am of the personal opinion that mental health should not only be a concern but a priority. Especially with our children. 

As adults, we learn in therapy how to manage our emotions, compartmentalize our feelings, and break them into manageable pieces. But kids, they are the ones who should be learning  about this, before they grow up and turn into adults that require therapy to work through the mess their mismanagement of feelings has created.

That’s why I love The Color Monster. 

This book is brilliant. 

It teaches them to recognize and acknowledge their emotions, and separate them from each other so they can wok through them. 

What’s it about?

The Color Monster is less of a story and more of a breakdown of different emotions. Color Monster has all of his feelings mixed up and the main character, a little girl, helps him sort them out. Each emotion is associated with a color. Each of those colors get put into jars (compartmentalizing) and then the color monster can better process the feelings. 

How are the illustrations?

The illustrations in this book are loose and scribbly, but it works well for the context. Emotions are messy and imperfect. So are the illustrations in the book. There is a seamless feel between the illustrations and the tone of the book, which approaches a difficult subject in a light manner.

What about the characters?

The monster is pretty adorable, not a scary or bothersome monster. He will not frighten or bother kids. The character is great for representing the “monster” that we can be sometimes, when our emotions aren’t in check. The little girl that leads the story is likable, and represents (for me, but I’m sure I read way to much into it) the child’s inner dialogue as the work through their mess of feelings. She is calm and helpful, while making it clear that the color monster really needs to figure himself out. 

What did my son think?

I’m always curious how my son will react to the books that are more intentional and meant to teach him something. I found that while it isn’t his favorite go to book, it is something that he enjoyed going through. He was able to point out the feelings to me, and he does sometimes associate the feelings with the colors, now that we’ve read the book. The book isn’t necessarily meant to entertain as much as educate. We keep it as a “calm down corner” book, so he can go through it and look for the feeling he feels, when all the feelings are out of control. 

My Overall Opinion

The Color Monster is a book you should have in your library or classroom. It’s a very helpful book for teach children how to manage rather big feelings. It introduces compartmentalizing in a simple way. I recommend it as a book for your calm down corner, especially if you have a little one that loves monsters.

What do you think?

Do you like “the color monster”?

What other books do you have in your calm down corner?

Want more book reviews? Click Here.