Susan Hemme

Benjamin & Susan Hemme are the authors of Goodbye Monsters. Goodbye Monsters was created to assist parents with getting some well-deserved sleep, while taking away the anxiety that can accompany children's bedtime.

Goodbye Monsters is a hard cover 8.5" by 11" children's book that comes with a "protector" plush toy named Zimbobo. While author Msgt. Benjamin Hemme deployed to Iraq, a fellow airman was very upset because his daughter was afraid of the monsters under her bed, and he wasn’t there to do his routine “monster chasing duties.” Through conversations with my fellow Airmen, I discovered that deployed service members often meant sleepless nights for the young children left behind. While we tend to think often about the men and women fighting for our freedom, the struggles that loved ones at home, especially children encounter sometimes get overlooked. Recognizing a need to support fellow men and women in uniform and children everywhere who suffer from bedtime fear, Goodbye Monsters was born!

Over the last two years the Hemme's devoted their time to creating Zimbobo, a plush children’s toy designed to protect and chase all of the monsters away accompanied by the book Goodbye Monsters. The Goodbye Monsters book together with the Zimbobo plush toy opens up the possibility of the deployed parent being able to read the book to their child while deployed and have the Zimbobo protector at home. Goodbye Monsters serves the dual-purpose of ensuring children can sleep without fear, and U.S. Service Men and Women can focus on their deployments with the knowledge that all is well at home. While Goodbye Monsters was started to help children of deploying military, studies show that over 90% of children experience bedtime fear at some point in their development and their goal is to help children everywhere overcome bedtime fear with a fun storybook and plush toy.

Goodbye Monsters is the story of a little boy named Ben who is terrified of monsters. One day Ben is introduced to a magical creature named Zimbobo who has supernatural powers that keep all of the monsters away. All you have to do is place Zimbobo in the scariest place and he will protect you from the scary monsters. We recommend placing Zimbobo under the bed or in the closet, but you know best where the monsters are hiding!