By Ed Emberley
A monster's face builds itself out of the black page one piece at a time, and then your child orders every piece of it to leave.
The page is black. Turn it and two big yellow eyes appear through a die-cut hole. Turn again and there's a long bluish-greenish nose, then squiggly ears, scraggly purple hair, sharp white teeth, and finally the whole Big Green Monster is looking right at you. Then the book turns around. Page by page your child sends each piece away: go away, scraggly purple hair. Go away, sharp white teeth. Go away, big yellow eyes. The holes shrink back down, the face comes apart in the reverse order it arrived, and the last page is black again and empty, with one condition attached: don't come back until I say so.
The monster is defused, and your child is the one who does the defusing. That's the difference between this and most monster books, where a character on the page is brave on your child's behalf. Here the words in their mouth are what makes the teeth disappear, and the die-cuts make the cause and effect physical: they say it, the page turns, the piece is gone. For a three- or four-year-old who has no leverage over anything at bedtime, the last line hands them the switch. The monster only comes back if they say so.