Classic Munsch Moods

Classic Munsch Moods joins Classic Munsch ABC and Classic Munsch 123 in creatively “recycling” Martchenko’s illustrations from earlier Munsch books. This time, the images form the basis for a board book that calls for youngsters to identify/recognize 21 different moods/emotions.

Most of the emotions are each visually represented on a single page, and, with the exception of the opening and closing spreads, the book’s text for each illustrated emotion is limited to a single word. In a somewhat police lineup-type of pose, the opening spread presents nine Martchenko-illustrated characters taken from a variety of Munsch-authored books and asks the question, “How do you feel today?” The closing spread repeats the characters, but now their emotions differ from what they initially were, and the text reads, “How will you feel tomorrow?” Silently, both spreads invite readers to pause and identify each character’s before and after emotions.

Many of the emotions presented between the opening and closing spreads of Classic Munsch Moods, emotions such as “happy”, “sad”, “mad”, “scared”, “surprised” and “excited”, are visually well-represented by the chosen Martchenko illustration. Additionally, these emotions are likely those already visually most familiar to readers who may have encountered them in other contexts, including real-life situations. In visual terms, some of the book’s less obvious emotions are “sneaky”, “confused”, “shy”, “curious”, “grumpy”, “caring”, “helpful”, and “calm”. Sometimes the possible confusion over an emotion may be because the illustration of an emotion is being presented without a larger context. For example, those who have read Angela’s Airplane may recognize that her wide-eyed look as she enters the airplane represents her being “curious” and not “fearful”.

For those who can already read, the weakness of Classic Munsch Moods is that it “tells” (rather than “asks”) readers what the emotion is. For instance, on one of the book’s few interior spreads, the Paperbag Princess can be seen facing a large green, smoke-blowing dragon with the one-word text reading “brave”. Given the smile, the arched eyebrow and look in the girl’s eye, without the “prompt”, a child might have drawn a different emotional conclusion. Another example would be “frustrated” where the focal girl looks extremely angry. Though the degree of anger may be rooted in her frustration, the illustration by itself does not obviously lead to that conclusion.

Those reading Classic Munsch Moods to a child for the first time might wish to cover the word on each page and let the viewer offer her/his opinion as to what emotion/mood has been rendered by Martchenko.

Like the two earlier “Classic Munsch” board books, Classic Munsch Moods lacks a “Key” to the source of each illustration. As the board book audience grows into chapter books, perhaps there will be moments of recognition as they again meet characters they first encountered in Classic Munsch Moods. A good addition to home, school and public libraries.