Welcome to Buddy’s Book Review! A bi-weekly book review of our favorite children’s books here at The Nest Schools. We thoroughly believe in the power of literature, and we are excited to introduce wonderful new children’s books to our families in hopes that they will expand their own home libraries as we expand ours!
How will we review and rate each book? Each book will be rated in terms of likeness to our core values: kindness, fun, wellness, and innovation. Five beautiful feathers will be given for the core value we think that each book represents the best. Happy Reading!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster by Ed Emberley and Anne Miranda is a book that aims to explain what feelings are and suggest ways to best deal with and manage them. It is a simple yet beautifully illustrated book with detachable masks to help children “try on” feelings. Each page shows brightly colored monsters acting out different emotions — sweet, pink monsters with cut out valentines and bake cookies to represent love and adoration, yellow-ish monsters play games and open presents to represent happiness.
The eyes and noses are punched out, so children can hold those pages up and “wear” the mask and provides a fantastic opportunity for children to make a connection between how the monster feels in the book and their own feelings in real life.
Children who lack the vocabulary to label and distinguish feelings, specifically regarding certain situations or activities, can benefit from this book as it aims to help identify emotions in different contexts!
Glad Monster, Sad Monster also is great in building receptive and expressive language skills as well by pointing out different objects in each scene as you read along. (bird, ball, snowman, colors, etc.).
Glad Monster, Sad Monster resonates with our core value of Wellness, and we give it five feathers for discussing emotions and ways to manage them. Wellness is all about taking care of your mind and body. Recognizing and labeling emotions and coping with healthy methods is crucial to your overall health!
A tip from us:
We suggest laminating the monster masks that come with the book to foster longevity as they can wear over time.
If you would like to spark a conversation with your child regarding their feelings and emotions, reading this book together could be a great first step towards doing so. This book is suitable for young children, parents, and educators alike!