Glad Monster, Sad Monster

by Ed Emberley, Anne Miranda

Glad, sad, silly, mad - monsters have all kinds of different feelings! In this innovative die-cut book, featuring a snazzy foil cover, you'll try on funny masks as you walk through the wide range of moods all little monsters (and kids!) experience.

Here's a fun, interactive way to explore the many different ways we feel!

Caldecott Medal-winning author/artist Ed Emberley provides readers with an imaginatively crafted book that helps children identify and understand their emotions. Visit him at his Web site:

Genres: Picture Books, Monsters, Childrens, Emotion, Storytime, Fantasy, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

American artist and illustrator, best known for children's picture books.

Reviews

[Tres Trece · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bueno para empezar a enseñarles a los más pequeños a tener contacto con sus emociones y que comiencen a identificarlas

[Phil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst children's book ever. No beginning and no end. Also, the "loving" monster is clearly female as if boys cannot show loving traits. Do not waste your money or your time on this book!

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Anne Miranda and illustrated by Ed Emberley teaches about emotions and the things that can trigger them through this colorful and interactive book. Each page has a color coded monster (often times in a color associated with a given emotion) who is feeling a certain way. To add some silliness into the reading experience, each monster page also has a mask for either the child or the parent to try on and act out the emotion.

I personally am not normally keen on these forced interactive experiences but hey, it has Ed Emberley's illustrations and I've been a fan of his since I was about two. His monsters are colorful, primal and easy to draw (a plus for my son who is into drawing monsters).

Despite my own reservations about putting on a mask an acting the part of a monster, my two kids think the book is hilarious. Fortunately for me, they much prefer taking turns putting on the masks then having me do it, leaving me to read the book and do the monster voices. Pretty soon I might be out of the monster Foley business, though, as Harriet is developing quite a repertoire of voices and sound effects.

In terms of plot, there is none. It's just a series of color coded monsters and their emotional states. For a quick and silly book to get kids involved it's a good start. The book also has a convenient envelope in the back to hold the masks.

[Taylor Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is short and sweet. This book depicts many different emotions, and things that can trigger these emotions. What I like about this book, is that many children can relate to it. These triggers are often very similar for young children. I want to buy this book to use in my future classroom. This book would be perfect in a preschool classroom or in a kindergarten classroom. Mental health is depicted because it shows the different emotions we all have, and how the monster handles those emotions. This book is realistic in the triggers that children have when they feel these emotions. It is unrealistic in that the character is a monster, and obviously monsters are not real. This book is very appropriate for young children, especially when teaching young children self regulation and identifying things that can trigger some emotions. I love this cute book!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book about emotions. I only had two problems with it. First, the copy from the library did not come with the monster masks that you tear out and wear while reading the book. Second, my child is some kind of crazy empath who is perfectly capable of watching any horror movie you throw her way but is completely thrown into a weeping 30 minute tantrum over anything "sad." Our first reading of this book was cut short by the blue sad monster when halfway through his page, Alice's mouth turned down at both corners and she begged me to stop reading the story because it was making her cry. I stopped. She burst into tears anyway and cried for half an hour. For the rest of the day, she avoided the book at all cost because it made her too sad and only let me read it to her in its entirety once I agreed to skip the blue sad monster pages. Why can't monsters just be scary, creepy, or silly, like they're supposed to be :)

[Laken Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glad Monster, Sad Monster: A Book About Feelings by Ed Emberley and Anne Miranda is an interactive storybook that explains various emotions and feelings. This book allows children to “mask” and “unmask” emotions using masks provided throughout the book, each with a specific emotion and color assigned to it. I enjoyed this book as the illustrations were very colorful and full of fun designs and shapes. I also like how relatable this book can be for young children as it uses the monster’s facial expressions to identify specific things an individual may feel with a certain emotion. I recommend this book for preschoolers to kindergartens as it allows them to identify feelings and contains high-level emotion-related vocabulary. I would use this book as an interactive read-aloud where I read it, and students create their own masks to represent their feelings to help them distinguish between emotions. I would also include this book in my calm-down corner so students can look through it to help them identify their feelings.

This book has been challenged in certain areas for containing images that may be too frightening for children.

[A Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm using this book, along with other books, to talk about feelings with my class. Although many of the feelings in this book overlap with other books I'm reading, I have to incorporate this book for the "loving" page because the other books don't cover that emotion and that page is so sweet! I also think this is the only book that covers feeling angry when you fall down and peers laugh. This certainly isn't my favorite feelings book though! Although all the other pages say "___ make me feel ____", there is one page that says "____ make me very scary!" This page feels out of place and confuses me. The book also ends very abruptly! While other books end with a "how do you feel?" page or a page about feelings changing or feelings being a part of you, this book simply ends after the "silly" page.

[Anjanabiswa]

Summary: Glad Monster, Sad Monster in written by Ed Emberley and Anne Miranda and illustrated by Ed Emberley. This book uses monsters to describe (human) actions that lead to different types of (human) feelings.

Evaluation of the Illustrations and Text: The illustrations are colorful and patterned. The drawings are in blocked shapes and look like simple children's drawings. The text is in different fonts depending on what color the monster on the page is. The text is under each illustration.

Strategies for Use in the Classroom:
This book teaches about feelings and actions that can lead to a feeling. The students can write different feelings they have and draw a pick of how they feel or what makes them feel that emotion.
Purpose: it is important for students to understand feelings and how to deal with them and use them correctly.

[Danalli Calhoun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book and give it a review for my class. I'm an Early Childhood Education student. So I figured why not put a review up for the book on goodreads. haha.

I think this book was a fun look into what can make you feel happy, sad, and so on. It allows a teacher to open up the discussion in the classroom about what makes children feel a certain emotion and gives a teacher the chance to start talking with children about emotions.

I knocked off a star because the author could have done so much more with this book, especially for a parent and child read, as a teacher we can add in more information, but lots of parents will not know how to add that information to help build children's social and emotional development.

It's definitely worth the read with your little ones though.

[Rebecca Bevacqua]

This book sparks conversation about emotions! You can use "Glad Monster, Sad Monster" to target:
- identifying emotions in different contexts
- receptive language skills by pointing to different objects in each scene, noises (thunderstorm, dog, bird)
- expressive language skills by labeling objects within each scene (e.g. flowers, ball, snowman), colors (each monster is a different color)

This book provides a great opportunity for children to make a connection between how the monster feels in the book and their own feelings in real life. This is especially important to create "links between words and the world" (Cazden, quoted in Clay, pg. 31).

[Madeline Volkman · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a kid, I always went to this book when it was time to read. I love this book so much. Children have so many emotions and they don't hide them sometimes. This book is really good because it shows a few emotions and why the monsters feel like the way they do. Also, there are flaps to interact with so that makes the children want to read it more and it gives them a chance to say what makes them happy/sad/angry/silly. I like this book because it allows the kids to be able to express their emotions.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a special place in my heart. The kids I've worked with have adored it, masks or no masks. And I've loved reading it with them. So much fun! It /is/ easy for kids to treat it more like a toy than a book, so it's not a go-to for me. Markers come and go, but I like to be more careful with books. (I don't currently have a copy I take around actually.) I love a book that pairs well with programs/lessons though and when a mask had broken, I've definitely considered making it a crafting opportunity. I definitely will come back to it at some point. Cute, colorful book!

[BlackhamBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really a "story" per se ... more of an "Inside Out" color connection to feelings. Blue is sad, yellow is sunshiny and happy, red is mad, pink is loving, orange is scared, green is scary, purple is silly. Felt pretty stereotypical, and not totally the best message. Do these monsters have any choice or responsibility in their actions, or are they defined by their color?

There are "monster masks" included, torn off the pages (leaving a rough edge). I read this on my own as an adult ... it would be interesting to read it to children, offer the masks, and see how it was received.

[Brooklyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is extremely important to introduce different feelings while kids are young and reinforce them for years to come. Reading this book is a great way to start discussing feelings and healthy ways to deal with them. Kids and adults alike are constantly feeling an array of different emotions. We're sometimes accustomed to hiding them rather than dealing with them, and this book changes that narrative at a young age.

[Marlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each monster is a specific color which represents an emotion and talk about things which make them feel that emotion. Each monster has a mask you can remove from the book for children to try on. We chose this book because our students are struggling to be kind to each other. It's truly a matter of not speaking their feelings. Perhaps with a few conversations instigated by the monster masks; we can all learn to get along.

[Kellen Ashmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interactive children's book dealing with emotions and what can trigger emotions is always a win for me and my daughter. It is interactive, colorful, and a fun experience with a mask that can be used for each emotion. There is not a true plot to the book and that does not bother me one bit. Emotions are a powerful enough to deal with and getting my daughter to talk about them with me is a win!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely my least favorite Ed Emberley book, but it is certainly simple and to the point. It could easily be used in story time to help kids identify different emotions and discuss positive ways to deal with them. The masks are a nice touch, but as a librarian, I worry about them getting lost and future kids being crushed when they check out the book because masks are missing.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Anne Miranda teaches about emotions and offers opportunities, via masks (which could be copied and passed out to students), to model these emotions. It's a picture book, but there isn't much plot. It is on the simple side but could be used to help build emotional vocabulary.

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

An introduction to feelings presented by color coded monsters. The mask aspect is a great idea to allow children to “try on” an emotion which could remove a layer of fear over naming emotions since it’s not quite as personal as naming your own feelings. Overall a good book for young children beginning to put a name on their feelings.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm guessing that this appeals to some audiences much more than it does to me. But it isn't a patch on the classic Go Away, Big Green Monster! and is much more fragile.

[Binxie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friends of the big green monster share feelings with youngsters. Bright of course, colorful illustrations along with just the right amount of text, offer a fun and engaging read useful in social emotional learning environments. The book's construction is not substantial enough for it to have a long shelf life though.

[The Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A variety of monsters describe activities and situations that evoke certain emotions. The reader can then use the corresponding mask and talk about what things make them feel that way.

Illustrations are very boldly colorful.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. Brightly-colored illustrations against a black backdrop. It's so important for kiddos to explore feelings. I read this with toddlers and had them make similar facial expressions to show the different emotions. It was a hit.

[Angelina Kerner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cute book. I separated the monster faces and we can read it as a family. Papa reads, kiddo helps read, and I hide behind each mask of emotion. This a great book to read with toddlers and I recommend to the mothers for their kids for sure.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Differently colored monsters describe the circumstances that elicit a particular emotional response.

This picture book helps teach emotional awareness, which enables children to identify and express their emotions.

[Shari (Shira) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun interactive book about feelings. It would work better as a read aloud for one child, rather than a whole class.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for home use, but it probably will not last long in our library.

[Liz Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just... like.. what about these masks? How does that work with a library book? I really do not like "tear out" features in books.. it just seems wrong and impractical..

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice picture book for talking about feelings and how different experiences elicit different feelings. The interactive masks are a fun thing as well.

[Carly MJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute quick read about emotions. Kids love the monster masks in it!