The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions

by Anna Llenas

Overview

Unpack feelings with color in this international bestseller that helps young readers identify emotions and feel more in control.
 
One day, Color Monster wakes up feeling very confused. His emotions are all over the place; he feels angry, happy, calm, sad, and scared all at once! To help him, a little girl shows him what each feeling means through color. As this adorable monster learns to sort and define his mixed up emotions, he gains self-awareness and peace as a result. Everyone will enjoy sharing this concept book that taps into both socio-emotional growth and color concepts in a simple, friendly way.

Read all three books about The Color Monster!
The Color Monster
The Color Monster Goes to School
Dr. Color Monster and the Emotions Toolkit
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316450010
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Series:	The Color Monster , #1
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	15,208
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Anna Llenas is an artist, author, and illustrator of books that talk about emotions, including The Color Monster, The Color Monster Goes to School, and Dr. Color Monster. In her work as an art therapist, she has been able to experience the power that art has to heal and transform people, individually and collectively. She lives in Spain.

Editorial Reviews

07/01/2018
PreS-Gr 3—In this Spanish import, children can learn to compartmentalize feelings through colors. Multihued Color Monster "woke up feeling confused, and he doesn't know why." His friend, a young girl, helps detangle his jumbled-up feelings by having him separate each one into its own color jar. She explains, how happiness "shines yellow like the sun," where sadness "is lonely and blue like a rainy day." She extrapolates on each explored feeling with examples such as "When you are calm, you breathe deeply. You feel at peace." With a background in art therapy, Llenas finds an approachable way for kids to identify feelings, and allows for the understanding that one can have many emotions at once. Color Monster never goes into why he is feeling a certain emotion, allowing space for readers to attach personal meaning to their own emotions and feelings. It also shows kids it is okay to cry when you feel sad, and how sometimes naming a feeling and separating it from another feeling is enough. Llenas's use of watercolor, pastels, and collage on a variety of styles of papers and cardboard has a three-dimensional aspect, enveloping readers into each world of feeling. The book's open ending shows Color Monster experiencing a new feeling, allowing for extrapolation and further conversations. VERDICT A great guide and conversation starter for one-on-one, storytime, or early elementary and SEL classrooms.—Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Library, OR

School Library Journal

2018-06-24
A kid helps a monster sort out his emotions.A monster arrives, multicolored, with frowning mouth and troubled eyes. "Are you all mixed up again, Color Monster?" asks an inexplicably annoyed-looking child. Then, either the child or a narrative voice proclaims, "Your emotions don't work well when they're all jumbled up." The child, now smiling, offers to help separate the monster's emotions "and put each one in its own jar." Each emotion is assigned one color, and the monster turns that color only (rather than multicolored) while that feeling is explained. Placing emotions literally into jars implies an odd repressiveness, while declarations such as "When you're sad, you…want to be alone" are unnecessarily universalizing. The textual descriptions sometimes contradict the visual messages, showing aesthetically cheerful or peaceful artwork for spreads about sadness or confusion. However, taken on their own, the multimedia illustrations are downright splendid. Using wax colors, watercolor pencils, acrylics, pencil, and collage, Llenas lays out entrancing textures and hues in enthralling compositions with plenty of white space. Lines are scribble-style, checkered, and swirled; background paper is graphed, perforated, and newsprinted. Cardboard or cardstock cutouts, punctured and layered, look as though they could be felt by readers' fingertips. Shapes are irregular and organic like home-cut crafts. Tugged across a blank white spread by the eager child, the multicolored monster trails collaged ribbons of color.Ignore the lackluster, prescriptive text—get this Spanish import for its fabulous artwork. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews

2019 International Literacy Association/Children's Book Council Children's Choices List
 
Over 25 translations for The Color Monster
 
More than 1.5 million copies sold internationally

"Llenas finds an approachable way for kids to identify feelings, and allows for the understanding that one can have many emotions at once... A great guide and conversation starter."—School Library Journal

"The multimedia illustrations are downright splendid."—Kirkus Reviews

"Helps process emotions using beautiful, affirming language.... Visually rich and poetically told."—Booklist

"[An] inviting exploration of colors and emotions.... The story should resonate with children whose emotions are not always easy to control."—The Horn Book

From the Publisher