To Eat or Not To Eat! Eat Pete! by Michael Rex

PETE WAS PLAYING ON HIS BEDROOM FLOOR WHEN A MONSTER APPEARED AT THE WINDOW.

When he spots the monster, Pete is happy to see a potential playmate.

"HI!" SAID PETE. "DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?"

The monster clearly has another plan. He is very hungry and he only wants to do one thing!

EAT PETE!

Pete, however, is unperturbed, and even a young monster likes to play with cars, so the monster and Pete build roads and happily crash their cars. Then Pete suggests that they play pirates! Monster stifles his appetite and walks the plank like a good scalawag. Then Pete pulls out his blocks, and the monster forgets his hunger for the moment and builds a mighty castle.

Then Pete invites him to play super heroes. Suddenly the Monster is not in the mood for caped crusading. What he really, really, really wants to do is...

EAT PETE!

SO HE DID!

But now there's no one to play with. What's a lonely monster to do about this situation?

In Michael Rex's suspenseful conclusion, there are only two possible, er, outcomes. One is super sad, and the other is a bit gross, but all comes out well in the hands of a master picture book artist, in Michael Rex's Eat Pete! (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2018), a monster story with a surprise ending that will have preschoolers giggling and gasping "EEEUUUWWW!" at the same time.

Michael Rex, the author of the inspired best-selling spoof, Goodnight Goon: a Petrifying Parody (read review here), conjures up a cute/scary critter reminiscent of Maurice Sendak's in the classic Where the Wild Things Are, along with a polite protagonist who's ready to forgive and forget to gain a fun playmate. Rex's latest has perfect pacing for the maximum read-aloud impact, and his illustrations are pure silly fun. This is a great book for the scary season or any time a funny monster story is on the menu. Share this one with Ryan T. Higgin's latest, We Don't Eat Our Classmates(see review here.)