The Sing Along mode has the up arrow, but instead of page turns, it has a play/pause button at the top. All three of the 'Read' modes give you a simple interface: left and right arrows at the bottom of the screen let you progress through the book, and an up arrow at the top takes you back to the menu. The app has four modes: Read Along with Ed, Read Along with a friend, Sing Along, and Read Myself. They provided a copy for me to try, and while I have some reservations, it's a pretty fun app. Go Away, Big Green Monster is now available as a digital book for iOS devices from Night & Day Studios (which Dan Donahoo profiled last year). Whether or not it helps children overcome fears of night-time bogeymen or not remains to be seen, but I know a lot of kids really enjoy the book. It's a very fun book, particularly the way that the different die-cut pages layer together and form the monster's face. When he's finally all there, the narrator (along with the child) shouts, 'But you don't scare me!' and then you get to peel back, layer by later, the pieces of the face ('Go away, scraggly purple hair!'), until the Big Green Monster has completely gone away. First his two big yellow eyes, then a long bluish-greenish nose, and so on. The original book starts with a black page, and each successive page has some cut-outs that slowly reveal the Big Green Monster. One of the best known from library read-alouds is Go Away, Big Green Monster! He has a whole series of drawing books (the ones that come to my mind are the fingerprint books that show you how to turn a fingerprint or thumbprint into all sorts of things), as well as several picture books. If you have kids (or if you once were a kid), chances are you've seen Ed Emberley's work.

Go away big green monster eyes