The Colour Monster is a great book to introduce children to the relationship between colour and emotions. We love Anna Llenas’ fabulous illustrations which complement the simple text and help a mixed up little monster to understand how each colour makes him feel.
The Story: The Colour Monster is a mix of colours so his friend, a little girl, takes him through each colour to help him understand how he is feeling. By the end of the story The Colour Monster is no longer rainbow coloured and the girl is confused by his final colour!
The girl puts examples of each different colour in a jar and explains what each represents. The Colour Monster changes as a new colour is introduced, his facial expressions and body language also change to show how he feels. Yellow, Blue, Red, Black and Green are introduced along with the final colour – the colour of love! In contrast the girl remains grey but she’s a warmhearted, caring friend. She offers support throughout the story and reassures The Colour Monster that she’ll be there for him, especially when he experiences more negative emotions.
Anna Llena’s illustrations are fabulous. Each page has its own colour scheme and we love the collage style. The two characters are hand drawn and the positions of their eyebrows and the styles of their eyes brilliantly portray their different expressions. Card, cardboard boxes and newspaper are all used for the illustrations, the newspaper boats are brilliant. Our favourite illustration towards the end of the book shows each coloured jar with the same coloured monster, it’s a great way to summarise the colour concepts introduced in the book. The simple text is great for a beginner reader and we love the conversational style of the writing.
It is often difficult for a child to articulate how they feel and this is a brilliantly simple book for helping a child to understand their differing emotions. My eight year old was intrigued by the concept of colours matching emotions and rolled around the grass talking about how calm green makes her feel. I can imagine using this book in a Key Stage One classroom to help children explain how they feel, it’s often easier when they can link their experiences and feelings to the experiences of a fictional character.
The Colour Monster is an enjoyable book to read but also provides plenty of scope for discussion and exploration of emotions.
Age Range: 3 +
Author / Illustrator: Anna Llenas
Thank you to Templar Publishing for sending us a copy of The Colour Monster. We weren’t asked to recommend it but we think it’s a great book to help children to understand the colour of their emotions.
Leave a Reply