What fun do little monsters have when they get together? Doris, a small green dragon in a lavender dress, cleans her house (with a rake!); the text asks readers, “Is she getting ready for a party?” A parade of guests—which includes a ghost and a young boy vampire—provides the answer. All carry bedrolls: It’s a sleepover! The group plays Simon Says, Doris tells fortunes, robot and mummy get into a scuffle, the hungry skeleton grabs an apple from a fruit bowl and eats the worm inside. Beck tells the story in simple, direct sentences beneath bordered acrylic panels, usually four to an opening but occasionally spreading out for two, that have only a handful of elements. Judicious use of speech balloons helps to develop the characters: “I will not go to sleep!” proclaims the mummy. “I have been ‘asleep’ for centuries. / I’ll get in my sleeping bag but I will NOT go to … / Zzzz…” It’s got a disjointed simplicity that borders on the avant-garde—loopy but appealing. (Picture book. 3-5)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8109-4059-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-told tale of nighttime collywobbles, suitable for framing.
When a yeti gets a case of the heebie-jeebies, then something clearly is amiss.
Readers meet Long and Edmundson’s Yeti, a yeti, as the day draws to a close. He heads to his cave, has some spaghetti and meatballs, flosses and hits the sack. But Yeti can’t sleep, as shadows lurk, “dart[ing] frightfully near! // They dance up the wall, / and, my, are they scary! / Oh, what could they be? / Yeti is wary....” Yeti flicks on the light. Three jewel-eyed bunnies stand there. The rabbits join Yeti in bed, off goes the light, and back come the shadows. This goes on as Yeti discovers a horde of his pals come to visit, until he shoos them to their respective beds and finally gets some shut-eye. This is a gentle and empathetic approach to the bedtime skitters, with a good and clear explanation for something that bedevils most kids when there is just enough light to conjure those creepy shadows. Kirwan’s artwork is not just luscious, but also smart and inviting in style, the matte colors effectively evoking scary shadows as well as laughably nonthreatening friends once the light is on.
A well-told tale of nighttime collywobbles, suitable for framing. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4521-1158-2
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
A humorous, somewhat unoriginal offering—for kids who prefer monsters to dinosaurs.
Who says monsters can only be frightful?
Although monsters roar, snarl, grumble, growl and howl, Smith’s playful text asserts that they also know how to behave. The text’s cheeky humor is immediately apparent as the tasks the little monsters carry out involve putting on clean underwear and combing cooties out of their fur. Illustrations extend the text about eating a “well-rounded breakfast” by depicting a box of “Swamp Munch Cereal” with “Free Bugs Inside” alongside a carton of “Mantis Milk.” Such playful intraiconic work affirms the interdependence of art and text, but the occasional indistinctness of the art and the sometimes-cluttered layout of the pages undermine the overall cohesion of the work as a whole. Furthermore, readers familiar with Jane Yolen and Mark Teague’s How Do Dinosaurs… series may find that this title cuts a bit too close to the line between similar and derivative in its execution.
A humorous, somewhat unoriginal offering—for kids who prefer monsters to dinosaurs. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4022-8652-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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