BooTime! I Want to Be in a Scary Story by Sean Taylor

"HELLO, LITTLE MONSTER. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO TODAY?"

"I WANT TO BE IN A SCARY STORY!

Well, Little Monster is a monster. But his helpful author/narrator tries to warn him that for novice monsters, a humorous story might be, um, well, more fun for starters!

This little purple monster insists that funny stories are not his thing. Let 'er rip with the spooky stuff, he insists. So the reluctant author conjures up a horrifying haunted house surrounded by a frightful forest of terrifying twisted trees!

"YIKES!"

Okay, maybe not that scary! The author offers to moderate the scene a trifle, sticking with just the haunted house.

Okay, How's this one? He puts Little Monster into a tight shot, with just him and the spooky house.

"OH, MY GOODNESS ME!"

Still too scary? The author is beginning to lose patience with his protagonist. He points out that a story plot requires some suspense leading to the climax.

"WELL, NOW, SOMETHING SCARY HAS GOT TO HAPPEN!" THE AUTHOR PROTESTS.

"YOU CAN GO INSIDE AND A CREEPY WITCH WILL JUMP OUT?" HE SUGGESTS.

Little Monster okays that scenario. But when a wizened weird sister appears, he freaks out. The weary author tries again with a ghost.

"JEEPERS CREEPERS!"

This scary story is going nowhere. The author is teed off. He's running out of terror tropes. What kind of spooky story does Little Monster want? He reminds Little Monster that this scary story business was all HIS idea.

"I KNOW," LITTLE MONSTER CONFESSES, "BUT I WANT TO BE THE ONE DOING THE SCARING!"

Ah, ha! Why didn't you say so? The amiable author comes up with just enough of a scary ending to please Little Monster and his young readers, in Sean Taylor's clever story that is just in time for the scary season, I Want To Be in a Scary Story (Candlewick Press, 2017). His adorable Little Monster gets to scare the begeezus out of some ginormous critters, and everyone gets a just-right fright in Taylor's carefully set up junior jump tale, with satisfying giggles at each page turn all the way to the end of this sly story that just begs to be read aloud.

Artist Jean Jullien provides the lovable little monster with budding baby horns, done up with digital purple fur with wide black outlining that seem to bleed into the background, along with a cast of leafless terrifying trees, a haunted house with a ghastly ghost and wrinkled witch, not to mention a somewhat spurious funny-scary monkey and gorilla whose bit parts provide the fun, all appropriately slapstick spooky, for preschool and primary fare. Preschoolers will appreciate the surprise scares, and older readers will relish the metafiction aspects of this story-within-a-story. There are speech balloons and dramatic page turns that will encourage grownups to look forward to October storytimes, and as Kirkus Reviews says, "...after the final page, readers may just be asking along with Little Monster, "So, can I be in a story again tomorrow?"