Customer Reviews

Don't Feed the Monster on Tuesdays!: The Children's Self-Esteem Book

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This 55-page picture book contains simple language easily read by first and second graders (on a par with Dr. Suess), but its sophistication about children's self-esteem will keep them coming back until they are approaching middle school.

The premise is simple: Everyone has days when they feel badly about themselves--their nose is too long, their ears are too big, their eyes are too small and so on--but in order to become productive and happy, kids should avoid being "picky, picky, picky." There are a million and one ways to be too critical of oneself, and the book shows that some of them are funny. Before the list is over, kids are laughing.

Next, they learn about that "area" inside our brains that "makes us think negative thoughts." Here we meet the monster (a little green guy) from the title. He's determined to make us feel bad and he whispers into our ears, and the more we listen, the louder his voice gets. Before we know it, he's taking nibbles out of our self-esteem.

About halfway through, the explaining leads to constructive exercises that children will also find funny--and therefore helpful. Self-esteem grows like flowers and the little green guy gets smaller and smaller until he practically disappears.

The book teaches children to articulate their feelings and to turn their negative feelings around. Trust me, it works. Alyssa A. Lappen

Both my 4 1/2 year old son and my 6 1/2 year old daughter loved this book and the others in the
series we've read. The pictures and the advice are fun, entertaining and helpful. Be warned,
however, this book is a kids' style book. Don't let the high price fool you. It is structured
like the longish Dr. Seuss Books (Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish, etc.). The only reason it
didn't get 5 stars is the high price tag. Most of the kids books we've bought like this one are
about 6-9 dollars. ...is quite a lot for a 5-10 minute read. Other than the price tag, however
this book is great for the grade school age kid. I worry that the 8-10 year olds may find it a
little babyish or uncool, but K-2nd age is perfect. Pre-schoolers may be a bit young to get all
the benefits of it, but they will enjoy it anyway.

I really liked this book, "Don't Feed the Monster on Tuesdays!" Before I read this book I used to think negative thoughts about myself every day. This book helped me realize that other people, even adults, experience the same thing that I did. I took your advice and reminded myself to think only nice things about myself. I even made a sign to hang in my room. I'm happy to say that your book really helped me. Keep up the good work! Thanks!

I am a Marriage and Family Therapist, and this book helped my kid-clients as well as my own kids. Very informative and simple. Great illustrations that help kids understand the concept of self-esteem. This book encourages children and normalizes their feelings. Strongly recomended for parents and therapists who work with kids.

I have been reading this book with my 7 year old for the past two years. Every time we spend time with the book my son is able to talk more about himself in a positive way. I use the book to talk about what he likes about himself - the traits- and what he likes about his friends and family. He is able to distinguish now between the behavior of a person and the real person. As a social worker I use the idea of the book with my own clients. Having them choose a day or even 1/2 a day to start liking themselves. I recommend my adult clients to read it with their children and to themselves.

I am amazed that my kids have jumped on this book and even offered to loan it to a teacher. Easy to read and funny as well this book has it all, in a way kids can understand. Each of my two boys has read and reread this self esteem guide for youn adult/ preteen.

I can't get over how incredible this book is! I was excited by the titles and reviews but wasn't sure how it would be received by my kids. They were rivoted by the book (my intonations helped a bit ;) and as soon as we finished we did some great role-playing of what makes the monster grow and shrink. I'm so happy - what a great tool to refer to in our everyday conversations! THANK YOU authors!

bought this series to help my out of control 5 year old to gain some emotional control. We have used all the books in the series and I am amazed the strides that we have made in the last two years since I purchased this series! Yes all kids have various problems but these books cover the real life scenarios that kids might encounter in words that they can understand. I would give this series 10 Stars if it was possible!

Lifesavers for sure!

My daughter found this book at school and requested it so many times that I finally bought it for her. Basically it introduces cognitive behavior therapy in a friendly way that kids can understand.

It takes all those tangled up thoughts that run through a persons head about how one feels about oneself and calls that "the monster." The monster wants to eat away your self esteem until you are very small and he is very big. He gets fed when you believe the lies that he whispers to you "You're no good" "you're dumb" "she doesn't really like you". So set aside a day and try all day to avoid feeding the monster. if he whispers bad things to you, tell him "STOP" and tell yourself something nice instead. If the monster doesn't get fed, he grows smaller.

I highly recommend this book to kids and adults who feel like they are always doing the wrong thing and feeling really down about themselves.

DON'T FEED THE MONSTER!

This has been great for a child with Autism struggling with self esteem issues. The kids like pointing out when the other is "feeding the monster" with their words or actions. It came highly recommended to me and I share the feeling!