Delicious! Especially when decorated with eyeballs. (recipe) (Picture book. 4-8)
It’s hard to tell which came first, the story or the cupcake, but either way, this picture book is a treat.
Starting with the title pages, the atmospheric mood is set with a murky purple landscape. A sign that reads “kitchen” points readers down a ladder into a hole, where four monster chefs try to appease their king’s appetite. The “horribly horrible” king has always eaten eyeballs and ketchup (youngsters will surely squirm and scream at this), and the simple text gets right to the point: The king wants something new to eat. He sends each chef in a different direction, threatening to eat them if they fail to find something to tantalize. The white background makes it easy to focus on the cartoonish monsters and their expressions. Despite tentacles, claws, bat wings, and in one case, lots of eyes, the chefs look rather dear. Children will empathize with them, especially after three are duped by would-be dinners. A rabbit threatens: “If you eat a rabbit, you turn into a rabbit. That is why there are so many of us.” The fourth chef comes up with an ingenious solution—he brings back a…chef…who makes…cupcakes.
Delicious! Especially when decorated with eyeballs. (recipe) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-808-8
Page Count: 34
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
While not as original as Mo Willems’ The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? (2012) or as much fun as Ryan Heshka’s Welcome to Monster...
Monsters are mighty, but even they can be tamed by one powerful word: please.
Wally lives in a small, perfectly ordinary town until monsters invade. They make poor neighbors. As depicted in digital, TV-cartoonish, neon-colored art, they come in many hues, shapes, and sizes; some have claws and others tentacles, and the number of eyes varies. Among them are the fairly traditional zombies, werewolves, and vampires. The thing they have in common: they wreak havoc, tearing up bushes and lampposts, shaking cars, stinking, and scaring children. Wally talks to them—unfortunately readers have no idea what he says and must conclude that he is asking them to desist. He also tries scaring them off with his little sister's screams and even attempts bribery with treats. Nothing works until Wally, in desperation, shouts, "Will you PLEASE stop breaking all our stuff?" Adults may wonder if shouting is really all that polite, but no matter how it is said, hearing the word "please" works for the monsters: "Soon all the monsters were on their best behavior." Vidal goes to town with the monsters, particularly the ones with tentacles, situating them in as wholesome a small town as can be imagined; though Wally and his sister are Caucasian, many of the town’s other residents exhibit a pleasing diversity.
While not as original as Mo Willems’ The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? (2012) or as much fun as Ryan Heshka’s Welcome to Monster Town (2010), this should win some fans. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1103-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
An interchangeable knockoff but still tailor-made to spark bursts of delighted nighttime screaming.
In a barely disguised remake of Is That You, Wolf? (2012), intrepid readers are invited to stick their hands into a series of pockets…and feel what lies within.
For this iteration, Cox changes the cast in his shadowy nighttime cartoons from farm animals to a group of children gathering for a campout, searching for protagonists from a piggy to young Sam—who likewise searches a yard and outbuildings to make sure no monster is present. On each alternate spread, a tarp, tent flap or other possible concealment is a pouch bearing the legend: “Slide your hand in if you dare… / Monster may be lurking so BEWARE!” What actually lurks out of view is a patch of fur, sticky goo or textured plastic just right for a momentary shock. Each discovery turns out to be bunnies, a toy or something else innocuous, though, which nicely sets up a large pop-up shocker on the final spread.
An interchangeable knockoff but still tailor-made to spark bursts of delighted nighttime screaming. (Novelty/picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7641-6608-2
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Barron's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
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