Bedtime Backstory: How I Met My Monster by Amanda Noll

One night, when I reached under my bed for my truck, I found a this note instead:

MONSTERS! MEET HERE

FOR FINAL TEST.--Z

Ha! I don't believe in monsters!

My parents were obviously trying to make me stay in my bed!

Ethan is not deterred. He peers with great interest under his bed and is rewarded by the sight of five pairs of glowing eyes blinking back at him.

Oh, WOW! All thoughts of sleep vanish.

"This is no trick! There ARE monsters under my bed!"

This is COOL. But Monster Master Zee seems displeased with his apprentices for breaking Monster Rule #1: Maintain the element of surprise! Apparently scaring the kid into bed and keeping him there is job one for nighttime monsters.

Four of the motley little monsters fail at roaring and scaring Ethan back into bed. But Gabe, a big green monster, stares at Ethan's toes hungrily. His stomach rumbles. He starts dripping quantities of green drool....

I sprang into my bed.

This was SO much better than playing with my truck!

And that's the story of how a beautiful bedtime partnership began, in Amanda Noll's How I Met My Monster (I Need My Monster) (Flashlight Press, 2019), the backstory to her popular bedtime bogeyman stories, I Need My Monster and Hey, That's MY Monster! (I Need My Monster) (see reviews here).

Author Noll certainly provides the impetus for getting kids to hop in bed and stay there, but the droll, big-eyed Ethan and the pseudo-dreadful monsters under the bed done up believably by artist Howard McWilliam in pencil and acrylic make this series prime monster fodder for Halloween, --not to mention anytime bedtime stories for kids who need a reason to keep their feet in bed, well out of the way of what's under there. Says Kirkus reviews with a wink and nod, "Frightful and delightful: a comforting (to some, anyway) reminder that no one sleeps alone," and Booklist adds, "Reminiscent of the Pixar film Monsters, Inc..., for those children who are ready for a little scare, this is a clever, fun romp."

A Rose by Any Other Name...: Quit Calling Me A MONSTER! by Jory John

JUST... STOP IT!

RIGHT THIS MINUTE!

He's over it! Scraggly arms akimbo and beady little eyes glowing, snaggly fangs in full view, this guy has had it up to here.

Just because he's covered with shaggy, purplish hair, has horns, some sorta sinister long claws and a scary, smirky smile that glows in the dark... how dare they call him a Monster?

Call a guy a monster, and everybody sees a monster when they look at him. It's stereotyping, that's what it is.

Sure, he prefers to conceal himself in closets. Yeah, he does a bit of howling now and again. But that doesn't mean he doesn't get his feelings hurt when people call him names!

"MOMMY!" YOU HOLLER, "SAVE ME FROM THAT ...

MONSTER!"

Can't a guy get some groceries? Can't a guy just try to read the nutrition label on the back of the box without being profiled? And can't a guy get few winks of shuteye under your bed? Have you ever heard the icky noises YOU make when you sleep?

And then there's the matter of manners! Why can't everyone else be polite?

YOU COULD LEARN SOMETHING FROM ME. I'M A MONSTER WITH EXCELLENT MANNERS.

UM..I DON'T MEAN... MONSTER, ACTUALLY....

OKAY, I'M... UM... SIGH... TECHNICALLY A MONSTER....

MY NAME IS FLOYD PETERSON.

And after all, who could be seriously scared of a guy named Floyd Peterson? (Sorry, real Floyd Petersons, but your name isn't scary!) In Jory John's jolly monster story, Quit Calling Me a Monster! (Random House, 2016), the name of the game IS the name. After all, when you get to know a guy, you know, like, his name and where he's coming from, he doesn't seem so bad. Author Jory John lets his semi-scary, dill-pickle-shaped protagonist speak for himself in a comic monster story just in time for the scary season. Jory John draws on the dean of silly monsters, artist Bob Shea, for the perfect monster with an image problem in a not-so creepy-critter tale that will give young readers some second-thoughts about name-calling.

For a double monster romp, pair this one with Jory John's and Bob Shea's I Will Chomp You! (read my earlier review here).

Just Desserts? I Will Chomp You! by Jory John

YOU HAVE BEEN OFFICIALLY WARNED.

IF YOU TURN ANY MORE PAGES, I WILL CHOMP YOU!

The monster is this book is a cake-coveting curmudgeon. He's got his stash of fancy baked goods hidden at the end of the book, and if the would-be reader tries to turn all the pages to get to it, Monster will eat him first!

Bystanders--a bird, a bunny, and a frog--are drawn to the scene by all the commotion. But the pages continue to be turned.

QUIT IT!

CHOMP!

The critters flee and the monster clearly misses his target. He sees he must change his tactics.

He tries asking nicely. It's nothing personal, he says. Try some alternative reading, he pleads. He's only protecting his special collection of cakes at the end of the book, he confides. He'll even give the reader half his cake if he will stop, he wheedles.

But still, the pages keep turning. Nothing works, so he has no choice left but to... CHOMP ALL HIS STASH FIRST! But even that has its problems.

MY STOMACH HURTS!

Author John Jory makes the most of the metafiction possibilities in his I Will Chomp You! (Random House, 2015). Artist Bob Shea, master of toothy sharks, carnivorous little dinosaurs, and other chomping picture book champs, cheerfully provides the chompmeister for this story--a snaggle-toothed, evil-eyed bumbler of a blue monster, done up in fat black-line and strong colored illustrations, who misses his target every time in a way sure to create waves of giggles among the preschool set. It's a natural for read-aloud hams who love to sink their, er, teeth into a juicy character which will have the audience chiming in on every CHOMP!

Skeletons in the Closet? Even Monsters Say Good Night by Doreen Muryan Marts

AVERY NEVER LIKED BEDTIME, AND SHE LIKED IT EVEN LESS ON HALLOWEEN WHEN ALL OF THE MONSTERS WERE OUT.

Her weary little weiner dog, still costumed as (what else?) a hot dog, has already dropped down on the living room floor for a doze, but Avery is still counting her trick-or-treat loot when Mom calls "Bedtime." She folds her wings and follows Mom to the bedroom, but not without some dread. How does she know that all those monsters out at Halloween aren't under her bed? Mom has an answer for that one all ready.

"AVERY, MONSTERS HAVE BEDTIMES, TOO."

Avery climbs into bed with her dog and cat, but she still has questions that keep her eyes wide open.

Mom, already stretched out on the sofa with her book, soon sees her former fairy daughter peering at her from over the sofa back.

Mom has answers at the ready. Glibly, she says witches go to bed when their breakfast potions are brewed. And werewolves sleep in dens like regular wolves do. Vampires? Well, they sleep by day in their caskets. Skeletons snooze--in closets, of course.

"MUMMIES SLEEP IN COFFIN BEDS INSIDE PYRAMIDS.

GHOSTS SLEEP INSIDE HAUNTED MANSIONS."

Avery is finally ready to wish a "sleep well" to all the creatures of the night in Doreen Muryan Marts' Even Monsters Say Good Night (Capstone Young Readers, 2015) in a bedtime story in which the main character gets wished a "Sleep tight," from all the monsters from their own particular bedtime places of repose. Told in easy text and speech bubbles, with funny sight gags to seek out, Marts' jolly Halloween-themed illustrations of the legendary denizens of the dark may take most of terror out of these scary critters for the youngest readers. A combo storytime offering, featuring both Halloween spooks and bedtime, this one is a unique read for the scary season.

For an up-close preview, see Capstone's clever trailer of this book here.

For a sleep-provoking pair, read this one with Maurice Sendak's pop-up monster tale, Mommy? ( a pop-up book) (Read my review from when this book was new here).