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?"

Messie Nessie! The Loch Mess Monster by Helen Lester

IN FARAWAY SCOTLAND THERE WAS A FAMOUS LAKE CALLED LOCH NESS.

AND LEGEND HAD IT THAT DEEP IN THIS LAKE LIVED A MONSTER.

 BUT GUESS WHAT?  THE LEGEND WAS FALSE.

IN TRUTH, WAY, WAY DOWN AT THE BOTTOM OF LOCH NESS, THERE LIVED NOT ONE. . .

BUT THREE MONSTERS!

The three were Nessie, her husband Fergus, and their baby, wee laddie Angus.

Now most babies are messy. They drop Cheerios one by one from their high chairs. They spill their sippy cups, and  the worst of them even flip gooey green peas onto the wall.

But as long as Angus ate in his high chair, he was pretty good.  He sweetly observed the BASIC MONSTER RULES: He didn't behave in a monstrous manner; he didn't eat with his thumbs; he said "Excuse me!" when he burped. There were two more rules--Always pick up after yourself and Never EVER go up to the surface of the lake--but being a baby, Angus didn't have to bother with those.

But when Angus becomes a terrible two, toddling around, leaving fishy lochweed on the floor and dropping his puggy-nit (peanut) shells all about, scattering grottie laundry everywhere, his parents have to stage an intervention.

They order him to stay in his room until he learns to keep the rule about picking up after himself.

Angus doesn't mind.  He has plenty of toys and Mama Nessie brings milk and tatties-in-a-can to his door daily.  And he is free to ignore the rules, and ignore them he does. Soon his floor is so full of mess that he has to start to throw his mess on his bed.

But the pile unpicked up things grows from a molehill to a mountain of mess. Angus has to scale it each night just to sleep.

Books and toys, rock collection  

Slimy lochweed, ewwww!

Fishy dolls, tattie cans,Hummie-doddies, too.
Grottie laundry, puggy-nits,Spoon and skirpy cup--

UP AND UP AND UP!

And then, one evening, when Angus scales his Mess Mountain, his head pops up, above the surface of the loch.

Angus realizes that he is breaking Rule #1, but he can't help noticing that he is being watched from the cliffs above by three curious figures equipped with telescopes, binoculars, and camera, eager for a sighting of the Loch Ness Monster.

"WHAT A MESS!

IT'S NAE THE LOCH NESS MONSTER!  IT'S THE LOCH MESS MONSTER!"

To Angus the three (a loon, a goat, and a cow) are land monsters! One has two sharp spikes on his head, and the big one makes a monstrous MOOOOING noise.

Time to moooooooooove! Suddenly Sloppy Angus wanted to clean up!

Scared straight, Angus begins to straighten up his room, and after a bit of a learning  curve, he dis-assembles his mountain of mess, organizing, putting away, recycling, and washing up his grottie dishes and duds.  All is well that ends well down at the bottom of  the loch, in Helen Lester's latest, The Loch Mess Monster (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).

In the trademark style of her popular Tacky the Penguin series and her beloved Wodney Wat books, this new one again has the help of noted artist Lynn Munsinger's familiar expressive and comic ink and watercolor illustrations, alternating between spot art set against bright white and full-bleed pages which pace this story perfectly.  Lester even includes a wee glossary of Scottish words to help sort out the fun.  Another winner from the peerless pair, Lester and Munsinger, with a nice little cautionary message about keeping your mess under control.

For little listener-readers unfamiliar with the legends of Loch Ness, pair this one with Richard Brassey's simple non-fiction book, Nessie the Loch Ness Monster.

The Grumpster: Crankenstein by Samantha Berger and Dan Santat

EVERY MORNING DURING THE PRODUCTION OF THIS BOOK, DAN SANTAT DEPRIVED HIMSELF OF COFFEE.

JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF CRANKINESS WAS IMPERATIVE!

And why would that erstwhile jolly jokester Dan Santat want to get in a grouchy groove? Because he's got to find the proper funk to draw Crankenstein as he goes through one of his downright disgruntled days.

HAVE YOU SEEN CRANKENSTEIN? YOU'D TOTALLY KNOW IF YOU HAD. YOU'D SAY "IT'S A GOOD DAY!"

CRANKENSTEIN WOULD SAY...


MEHHRRRR!

Crankenstein is a bit of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde hybrid. He'll be looking like a regular kid, about to tuck into a stack of pancakes... and if there's only a pitiful drop of syrup left in the bottle, he becomes ... Crankenstein. A cold rain, untied shoelaces dragging in the puddles, a bit of dog poo on his shoe, a melting-too-fast popsicle, a long, long, line for the carnival ride, a spoonful of gross-o medicine--all are enough to turn his face as green as the Incredible Hulk's and signal a temper tantrum on the way! Is there anything out there funny enough to make this sulky kid smile?

Samantha Berger's just-published Crankenstein (Little, Brown, 2013), peevishly illustrated by a sullen, out-of-sorts, definitely decaffeinated Dan Santat, has just the right tongue-in-cheek touch to tug a smile out of the grumpiest kid, especially when he gets the chance to meet another grumpster just as temperamental as he is. Calling all ye green meanies! As Kirkus Reviews promises, "Get ready to read this aloud a lot.

Presumably, author Samantha Berger is into bad behavior, being the author of Martha Doesn't Share! and Martha Doesn't Say Sorry! (see my reviews here), and Dan Santat has surely battled his share of bad outcomes in his illustrations for Mac Barnett's Oh No!: Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World. (see review here).

Claustro-Critter: Don't Squish the Sasquatch by Kent Redeker

"HELLO, MR. BLOBULE! MAY I PLEASE RIDE YOUR BUS?

I HOPE IT DOESN'T GET TOO CROWDED.

I DO NOT LIKE TO GET SQUISHED."

It's obviously the first stop of the morning for Mr. Blobule's bus, and its first passenger, a green Bigfoot, nattily attired in black suit, bow tie, and Derby, carrying a black briefcase, obviously has his issues as he takes a solo seat in the very back of the bus.

But as the city bus tootles through the quirky urbanscape, things get critical for this claustrophobic critter. A cast of creatively-conceived critters board the bus, one at a time--Miss Elephant Shark, Mr. Octo-Rhino, Miss Loch-Ness-Monster-Space-Alien, all dutifully reminded by Mr. Blobule of the new house rule:

DON'T SQUISH THE SASQUATCH!

But Senor Sasquatch grows progressively more squeamish in his redoubt in the back of the bus as the other amply-proportioned creatures crowd him more and more.

At last our neurotic character has reached his limit. Thrusting his head and arms wildly through the window, he vents his anxiety: AAAAARGH!

Mr. Blobule's bus suddenly reaches its capacity, and in a dramatic four-page gatefold, it EXPLODES: KA-BLOOEY!

The bus is blown, its passengers thrown into the street, and Mr. Sasquatch starts having a monster meltdown on the sidewalk. What to do? Can Mr. Blobule come up with a serendipitous prescription to soothe the Sasquatch?

There's a super silly solution to this off-beat story, skillfully scripted by author Kent Redeker, in his delightful Don't Squish the Sasquatch! (Hyperion, 2012). Told entirely in the cumulative conversations between the driver and his hybrid critter passengers, with the oft-repeated "Don't squish the Sasquatch" as a refrain that will have kids chanting along with the dialog, this picture book is equally reliant on Bob Staake's illustrations, done in a stylized but abstract style that pretty much defies description but is nevertheless wonderfully suited to this wacky but sweet tale of tolerant friends.

As Publishers Weekly puts it, "...this is a book to be read aloud. Loudly."

It's Not Easy Being Green: Monsters Aren't Real by Kerstin Schoene

"MONSTERS AREN'T REAL.

THEY CAN'T BE."

"THEN, WHAT AM I?

It's hard enough on a guy's self-concept to be a bit, well, quirky-looking. Four horns. Big lopsided eyes with a beady stare. Green lichens growing on his head.

And now you're saying I don't even EXIST? But... look! There I am in the mirror. Listen here!

"I'M BIG AS A MONSTER.

I'M SCARY AS A MONSTER.

AND I'LL PROVE IT!"

Our (actually quite cute) monster spray paints "MONSTERS ARE REAL!" all over walls and hangs signs from every tree. Alas, it is all to no avail. People just don't see a monster no matter how much he uproots saplings and waves his claws about. Finally, tears appear in frustration. What's a lonely monster to do?

But, of course, our little no-monster monster finally finds a kindred spirit in Kerstin Schoene's sweet little story of finding yourself at last, in her just-published Monsters Aren't Real (Picture Book) (Kane Miller, 2012). As Kermit the Frog once pointed out in song, "It's not easy being green," and Schoene's appealing little monster's search for a place of his own will draw smiles from youngsters who won't be able to keep from rooting for this displaced little guy.