While it’s gratifying to see a story that trusts readers with fear, the lack of a substantial plot and poor rhyme quality...
Actress Lilly makes her picture-book debut.
Opening with a slant rhyme, the preface claims Selma discovered a “wagon-like ride,” though how this is possible when she’s just “wandered away from a fair” is puzzling. A disembodied voice welcomes her and—over the course of 10 action-void pages—introduces the nine creepy Squickerwonker marionettes. Verse peppered with odd word choices and awkward phrasing makes it clear that rhyme takes precedence over story. While the illustrations only occasionally succeed in highlighting the Squickerwonkers’ unsavory qualities, Fraser-Allen does a commendable job of creating an eerie atmosphere. When Selma bravely joins the Squickerwonkers onstage, they purposefully pop her balloon (evidently prized, though it is not mentioned in the text before this). Her subsequent tantrum gets her labeled a brat and turned into a Squickerwonker herself (with very Coraline-esque coin eyes). Readers may wonder why a girl who stands up for herself is characterized as spoiled and punished. Is this book a cautionary tale? Perhaps, but its moral is uncertain, especially given the rushed and unclear ending.
Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-78329-545-6
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Titan Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2014
Frightful and delightful: a comforting (to some, anyway) reminder that no one sleeps alone.
In a tardy prequel to I Need My Monster (2009), candidates for that coveted spot under the bed audition.
As the distressingly unflappable young narrator looks on, one monster after another gives it a go—but even with three mouths, the best roar Genghis can manage is a puny “blurp!”, silly shadow puppets by shaggy Morgan elicit only a sneeze, and red Abigail’s attempt to startle by hiding in the fridge merely leaves her shivering and pathetic. Fortunately, there’s Gabe, who knows just how to turn big and hairy while lurking outside the bathroom and whose red-eyed stare and gross drooling sends the lad scrambling into bed to save his toes. “Kid, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” the toothy terror growls. Right he is, the lad concludes, snuggling down beneath the covers: “His snorts and ooze were perfect.” As usual, the white-presenting child’s big, bright, smiling face and the assortment of bumbling monsters rendered in oversaturated hues keep any actual scariness at tentacle’s length. Moreover, Monster, Inc. fans will delight in McWilliam’s painstaking details of fang, claw, hair, and scales.
Frightful and delightful: a comforting (to some, anyway) reminder that no one sleeps alone. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-947277-09-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flashlight Press
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
What could be more soporific at bedtime than hairy, green-haired slime ogres with nightlight-orange eyes? (Picture book. 5-8)
Another round of under-the-bed–boojum auditions from the creators of I Need My Monster (2009).
Outraged that his personal bed monster, Gabe, has decamped to attend to his wakeful little sister, a lad marches across the hall to remonstrate. Given three chances to conjure up a suitable new monster for hyperactive Emma, three drippy, wormy, tentacled horrors are summoned in turn. Unfortunately, Emma turns out to be delighted rather than properly terrified, and none will do. Will the boy be forced to go monsterless? Drawn with big, shiny eyes and oversized heads, the two light-skinned sibs glow with energy—but the garishly hued monsters in McWilliam’s toy-strewn bedroom scenes are show stealers, whether exuding pools of pink slime or rearing up in glowering, warty menace in vain efforts to get Emma into bed. At last, in a satisfying if not particularly logical twist, it turns out that Gabe himself has a little sister, Stella, whose threatened attack on the giggling Emma’s toes results in a quick bonding and, a page turn later, snoozing children on both sides of the hall.
What could be more soporific at bedtime than hairy, green-haired slime ogres with nightlight-orange eyes? (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-936261-37-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flashlight Press
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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