Fans pick 75 books like The Color Monster

Breathe Like a Bear is part of a series of seven books called Mindfulness Moments for Kids. I absolutely love this book as a way to immediately have real and effective tools to calm your toddler. The exercises in this book are simple, quick, and effective. Breathe Like a Bear is also illustrated so beautifully with vibrant colors to really keep young kids really engaged in the process. If you are looking to go further than identifying feelings and want to move into practices and tools to help regulate your child’s emotions, this is an excellent option. 

I am absolutely enamored with the illustrations by Janan Cain in this book. They give me the same whimsical feeling I would get as a child reading A Bad Case of the Stripes. There is a softness in the colors and visual elements that really lends itself to the content of the book. Each emotion is touched on without judgment, just presenting its qualities. It is almost like a dictionary of feelings, which can be helpful for parents starting discussions around emotions. I could also see this book being so helpful for neuro-divergent children in acting out and identifying their feelings and the way other feelings present in others. 

If you are a parent on the search for children’s books, I’m sure you have already come across Jory John’s and Pete Oswald’s Food Group Series. I can’t help but to include The Sour Grape, the newest edition to the series, in this list. Their entire series has been so well written and illustrated, turning common colloquialisms into clever characters and illustrations. The Sour Grape is a beautiful message on empathy and compassion, and why it is important to see things from other people’s perspectives. If you have a little one that's always holding a grudge or thinks the world is out to get them, then this one is a must-have!

Catching thoughts is an excellent book to introduce mindfulness to young children. This book touches on intrusive thoughts and how they are paired with feelings. It presents the idea of acknowledging thoughts and feelings, without getting carried away by them and then letting them pass on. I think this book is a great resource for any child and perhaps especially children with high anxiety. The illustrations feel quiet and introspective which is paired so beautifully with the verses. 

First and foremost, as an artist/illustrator, I maintain that as artists, it is our job to create work that evokes emotion. This book makes the mark.

I am a fan of Stephen Gammell’s illustration. He pulls out all the stops with colour and character. Liz Rosenberg’s simplistic yet delicate story hangs us in suspense between fear and love, made whimsical by Gammell’s illustrations.

I  think this is a very powerful book and a perfect match for Gammell’s artwork. 

When I recently read The Yark I was only disappointed in that I hadn’t discovered this book sooner. It has the morbid quip and charm of Roald Dahl combined with highly detailed and immersive illustrations. This is a monster story which will leave you far more afraid of children than what’s under your bed. 

I picked up this book because it reminded me of a writing assignment I did in college. Instead of a traditional critical essay on Frankenstein, I wrote a “scene” in which Mary Shelley and Victor Frankenstein discussed the novel's themes. (I got a good grade if you are curious.) This isn’t the most lyrically written novel, but I loved the bold premise of bringing Victor into the real world to interact with the Villa Diodati group, telling them the unbelievable tale of his creation.

I admired the clever turns throughout, and the climactic discovery was well-earned. I’ve always been a fan of the fictional character stepping off the page. This one had me thinking long after I’d finished it.  

The Tekken fighting game franchise has always been an inspiration to me. When this comic book series came out, I was beyond thrilled, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Tekken is a series about a family battle between a son, father, and grandfather, all possessing a form of cursed bloodline and the desire for power and to become the best there is within a fighting tournament. This book and its visuals helped me finalize some of the character aspects within my first novel and helped me picture fight scenes being more powerful and ferocious. I recommend this book and its series to any who likes fantasy-like fights and fighting games/books.

I love that this book was the result of a dare! In 1816, eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley and three friends held a contest to see who could write the scariest story. Mary’s story—like her monster—has since taken on a life of its own and today permeates all forms of storytelling.

I find it amusing that my favorite version of the monster is the one Mel Brooks gave us in Young Frankenstein. I wonder what Mary Shelley would think if she knew how much her acceptance of a dare would change storytelling forever.

I like to revisit the original story from time to time to savor the gothic drama and flowery writing. If I’m reading it on a dark and stormy night, all the better.

Monstress is an awful lot of things: An epic fantasy that confronts the horrors of modern war; a work of fusion that marries Western and Eastern aesthetics and the epic scale of George R. R. Martin with the cosmic and body horror of Junji Ito; an incredible trove of beautiful visual art; a stage for women of all kinds, young and old, beautiful and monstrous, weak and powerful, with and without shark heads; and a story about a girl coming to grips with a dark family legacy and what it means for her place in a bloody, painful world.

More than anything else, it’s about what happens when people use each other. For my money, the best epic fantasy currently being published in any form.