There Be Monsters! There Was an Old Monster by Rebecca, Adrian, and Ed Emberley

There was an old monster
Who swallowed a tick.
I don't know why
He swallowed the tick,
'Cause it made him sick.

Award-winning artist Ed Emberley here teams up again with his daughter in a playful romp of a monster tale based on the traditional song "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." Here we have a goofy horned monster curiously decked out in a short and spiffy green skirt who swallows some ants to de-tick his rumbling tummy.

He swallowed some ants.
He took a big chance
When he swallowed those ants.

'Cause, Man, those ants
Had him dance in his pants.
Scritch, scratch, scritch,
SCRATCH!
Scritchy-scratch, scritch.

The monster goes on to ingest first a lizard ("hanging upon his gizzard"), a bat ("Imagine that!"), and then a jackal in the vain attempt to curb the commotion in his innards, all to no good end:

Then that old monster
He swallowed a jackal.
(I swear I heard him cackle.)

And then that monster goes one bite too far when he reasons that there's only one enemy who can take on a jackal---a lion, right?

There came a great ROAR!
And that monster was no more.
Scritch scratch scritch.

As in their recent collaboration, Chicken Little father-daughter team Ed and Rebecca Emberley team their talents in their newest, There Was An Old Monster!, a sure read-aloud treat for the picture book set, especially during the coming spooky season. A third talented Emberley, Adrian, provides a bouncy sing-along version, available from download from Scholastic.com.