Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley

“It’s like Candyman if instead of saying his name three times you just called into existence each of his bodyparts.”

Man. Insult upon injury, today’s book. Does the reader really have to call Big Green Monster’s hair “scraggly”? That’s just wrong, dude. Today I introduce Kate to her very first Ed Emberley book. Sure, it’s not terribly Halloween-ish, but it’s not NOT Halloweenish, amiright? We consider the ways in which Emberley both invokes a scary monster without making it too scary along the way. So he’ll follow up sharp white teeth with “little squiggly ears”. It’s a fascinating duality. We also talk paper texture, hair shaming, and why the cartilage in monsters tends to be a different color than skin.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

Here‘s the Grinch horror movie Kate references. And we didn’t even DISCUSS the upcoming horror film Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. See what happens when books enter the public domain?

We wondered quite a bit about why there’s a bluish-greenish nose in addition to a big green scary face. Why have such similar colors? You can’t even clearly make out this nose from a distance, and this is a readaloud storytime book, for crying out loud! One theory is that the nose should, by color logic, be orange. What would be the problem with that? Well, look at this nose. This is clearly a Bert from Sesame Street shape situation here, people. My theory is that it was orange-ish and the color change was requested by an editor somewhere.

“A face going away can be frightening to a certain type of child.” This is the Sesame Street sequence that freaked me the heck out as a kid. This book? Really reminds me of this sequence, it does.

Now my working theory here is that this face, right here, is the most frightening in the entire book. “It’s just TEETH and EYES!” After all, you would think the face would be the last thing to go.

Kate Recommends: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty. You can register to watch her speak on November 18th here.

Betsy Recommends: The podcast Sci Show Tangents

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate