Because we humans are never too young to establish preferences, L made clear today that she already has a favorite book: “Go Away, Big Green Monster,” by Ed Emberley.

Forget the egotistical Dave Eggers–this book is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. The subject of this one: a big monster (yes, he is green, as the title implies), who has scraggly purple hair, squiggly ears and a big red mouth with sharp white teeth.

The narrator of the book tells us about the monster over a series of pages by describing individual characteristics of the monster’s face. With every new description, we see more of the antagonist, until, finally, we see the whole beast.

Then the narrator gets defiant, and tells the monster to retreat. One by one, the narrator instructs its scary features to disappear. One by one, they do.

Usually, when I read this book to L, she listens intently, laughs at all the right moments (her favorite is when I pretend to cut my finger on one of the sharp white teeth), then loses interest and eats her foot.

Today, however, I read it once, and she made me read it again. Then she made me read it again. And again. By the end of the evening, I had read “Go Away, Big Green Monster” so many times I had committed its electric prose to memory.

Somewhere, probably at a five-star resort on Kauai, Ed Emberley laughs knowingly. And, well, he should.