My Teacher is a Monster! by Peter Brown

Brown, P. (2014). My teacher is a monster! NY: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

My Teacher is a Monster is a book both teachers and students can relate to. Robert is a precocious child with lots of energy. He sees his teacher as a big bad monster when she reacts to his silliness. His only escape is when he gets to visit the park on the weekend. Unfortunately, this particular weekend he runs into his monster of a teacher! After a particularly harrowing event, Bobby begins to see his teacher as more than just a monster. Through bonding activities he comes to realize that his teacher is just a human woman. The last page of the story brings in a surprise twist reinforcing the common phrase, "People don't change."

Peter Brown uses color in his book, My Teacher is a Monster! (No, I Am Not!) to show the scenery at the park. Throughout the story he relies heavily on the color green. His "monster" teacher is green, his shirt is green, and most everything in the park is green. As the tale continues, his teacher becomes less and less green to reveal a more human lady. This symbolizes his opinion of her morphing away from a monster and more into a pretty teacher. However, on the last page we see that Robert is up to his old mischief and his teacher returns to her greenish hue.