Bogeyman! Big Bad Bubble by Adam Rubin

YOU MAY NOT KNOW THIS, BUT WHEN A BUBBLE POPS, IT DOESN'T JUST DISAPPEAR.

IT RE-APPEARS IN LA LA LAND, WHERE THE MONSTERS LIVE.

You might expect that monsters living in a dank, dark world would be happy to see a cloud of pretty blue bubbles blowing their way! After all, every kid in our world gets a big bottle of bubble stuff as soon as the weather warms and starts happily trying to wand and blow bubbles up over over the treetops. But no.

It seems that La La Land has its own fear-monger, a big yellow guy named Mogo who once had a unfortunate encounter with bubble gum and who has convinced all the other little monsters that bubbles are the the ultimate horror.

BUBBLES ARE SNEAKY. THEY TRAVEL IN PACKS.

SUMMER IS THE WORST TIME. THAT'S WHEN THEY GO INTO A FEEDING FRENZY.

Fed a daily indoctrination of bubblephobia, all the monsters cringe in fear and loathing when the bubbles appear.  Despite the indisputable fact that all the La La inhabitants have all the right stuff--horns, fangs, claws or all three--to take on the invasion, no one is willing to confront a bubble, mano a mano, to find out what it is made of. Yerburt, Froofle, and Wumpus flee, screeching monstrously.

It's time for a little phobia busting in Adam Rubin's latest, Big Bad Bubble (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), as the author's off-page narrator-slash--therapist talks Wumpus through a little cognitive counseling, and when Wumpus pokes a big bubble with his horn, he finds out it's just ...

A BALL OF AIR!

BUTTERFLIES, ON THE OTHER HAND....

Ever since Charlie Brown and Lucy cringed at the sight of sidewalk fuzz and Max confronted the Wild Things on their own turf, authors have helped kids confront imagined terrors. With a lot of artistic help from his friend and illustrator, Daniel Salmieri, author Rubin takes a poke at those innocuous and irrational fears by proposing the most innocuous threat yet, a soap bubble! Salmieri's bright orange, yellow, green and red characters are visual standouts set against his gloomy black backgrounds, giving this airborne bugaboo a decidedly light touch.

Other best-selling picture book hits by this dynamic duo are Those Darn Squirrels! (and sequels) and Dragons Love Tacos. (Check out my reviews here and here.)