Mega-Monster! Rodzilla by Rob Sanders

WELCOME TO MEGALOPOLIS, the sign proclaims.

Megalopolis seems a bustling city of sturdy buildings, bustling trucks and cars, and busy pedestrians...

... but something is afoot!

"ONE MOMENT, PLEASE....

BIG, BAD TROUBLE IN MEGAPOLIS!"

With a WOBBLE and a CLUNK! a fleshy monster invades the cityscape. Gigantic, rotund, and wearing a tee shirt that says TOTALLY ROD, he lumbers, scattering the buildings like baby blocks and snatching up the people and the cars like toys in his pudgy paws, leaving a trail of destruction behind him.

And speaking of behind--what's that stinky smell?

ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE SUCH AN AWFUL CREATURE!

But it only gets worse. As the monster lumbers across the landscape, he cries out and clutches his considerable belly, and then.... without further warning...

HE HURLS... .

BLECK! It's a trail of disgusting devastation as Rodzilla totters on, squishing through the glop in his path. The massively messy monster wobbles through his slimy wake and, with people and the news crew retreating in fear, Rodzilla belly flops right in the middle of the morass!

"HE'S ON HIS FEET AGAIN!

THIS JUST IN! RODZILLA IS NOW CLIMBING UP SKYSCRAPER TOWER!"

Can Rodzilla be stopped? Is the city doomed? But...WAIT!

"I HAVE JUST GOTTEN WORD THAT TWO BRAVE CITIZENS HAVE COME FACE TO FACE WITH THE CREATURE!"

It's Mom and Dad, of course, rushing to restore law and order to the rampaged playroom, in Rob Sanders' and Dan Santat's tall tale of total toddler meltdown, their just published Rodzilla (Margaret K. Elderry Books, 2017).

Artist Santat provides all the cues for sharp-eyed readers to suss out the real identity of Rodzilla, as toddler Rodney trashes his own turf, the playpen. Santat's skilled manipulation of perspective, revealed in varying cinematographic angles, provides lots of clues, beginning with the author's name spelled out in alphabet blocks and the illustrator's name on an Etch-A-Sketch on the cover. Older primary students with tots at home will giggle and groan knowingly throughout the mayhem--the plentiful toddler drool, tot toots, baby barf, and smashed toys--and will rightfully see what true heroes parents can be. This one has plenty going on on every page to keep laughing kids coming back over and over for a re-read.