Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley (1993, Hardcover)

This is a very well designed and constructed hard cover book with a very simple story line. You spend half of the book building a scary big green monster, one part at a time. Starting with his yellow eyes, you turn the pages to reveal other pieces and parts. And just when you are finished building him, it is time to tell him to go away, color by color, and part by part. His eyes soon disappear into the darkness of the last page. In addition to learning colors, and some interesting adjectives that are used to describe the parts of the monster, children also feel empowered as they repeatedly tell the monster to go away and not come back (unless they say so). This book is also interesting in that it encourages young readers to view the monster not just as a whole, but as a collection of unique and distinct parts. The parts have little meaning until the monster is completely assembled, and the kids are subtly introduced to the notion that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. For all of these reasons, I love the book. It is an excellent choice for your young children.