And Baby Makes Three..." Zombie In Love 2 + 1 by Kelly DiPucchio

MORTIMER AND MILDRED HAD A PROBLEM.
IT WASN'T A BIG PROBLEM.

IT WAS A LITTLE PROBLEM.

Zombies Mortimer and Mildred had fallen in love at first sight and now are living in newlywed bliss in their quaint vine-covered mausoleum near their friends in the graveyard.

But one twilight they find a surprise left on their doorstep--an old orange crate with a lively human baby inside, with a sign that says TAKE ME!

Being parents throws the undead couple for a loop. They name the baby Sunny, swaddle his bottom in some old mummy wrappings they have around the house, and set out on the rocky road of parenting.

But a baby is not exactly a good fit for creatures-of-the-night Mort and Millie.

Sonny is fussy at feeding time. He refuses a spoonful of bat pudding and actually spits out his pureed brains! He's not even green; he's a sickly color of pink. His teeth come in instead of falling out. And he never cries.

AND WORST OF ALL, HE WAS AWAKE ALL DAY AND SLEPT ALL NIGHT.

POOR MORTIMER AND MILDRED WERE DEAD TIRED.

In desperation, Mortimer and Mildred take Sonny to the pediatrician. Dr. Frank M. Stein, who pronounces Sonny in the pink of health.

That's good news, Mortimer and Mildred suppose, but it still doesn't give them a clue what to do to get some semi-eternal rest. They foresee endless weary days half awake, reading endless bedtime stories, playing pattycake and peek-a-BOO.

But at last there's a breakthrough!

SONNY FINALLY SLEPT THROUGH THE DAY!

Kelly DiPucchio's follow up to her best-selling Zombie in Love (see review here) takes her lovelorn hero and his smitten sweetheart into the trying days of parenthood. But with a few good day's sleep, Mortimer and Mildred stop falling apart (literally) and begin to enjoy the milestones in raising Sonny. When Sonny tries to climb out of his skull-bedecked crib and hits the floor with a crash and a wail, Mildred's first thought is to take a picture for the baby book.

"QUICK! GRAB THE CAMERA!

SONNY JUST TOOK HIS FIRST FALL!"

Illustrator Scott Campbell comes up with plenty of sight jokes in this second book, mostly executed in an appropriate palette of putrid greens. The Zombies' front door mat says R.I.P. and earthworms frolic in their graveyard lawn and house. Brains are everywhere, from baby pull toy to hobby horse head, and Mildred teaches patty-cake with Mortimer's two detached hands. In a wry double entendre Mildred tells Mortimer than Sonny has his nose (actually!), and with big gap-toothed grins (and one missing nose), all three pose together for a selfie, as Millie declares herself "the luckiest ghoul" ever.

One reviewer points out that DiPucchio and Campbell's books are perfect for both Halloween and Valentine's Day, and Publishers Weekly proclaims that for either occasion Zombie in Love 2 + 1 (Atheneum, 2015) is drop-dead funny and will "keep kids cackling."

DING! Robot in Love by T. L. McBeth

It was a day like any other.

Then I saw her!

I had never seen anything so beautiful.. So... shiny!

No sooner do his optical sensors fire than his servos are in swivel and his central processor is sizzling!! He is smitten.

Robot is in love!

He moves closer, thinking to activate vocalization, but his circuit board is in total system overload.

DING!

Our connection was electric!

The next day Robot tries again. Nattily attired in spiffy suit and red bow tie, carrying a bouquet, he returns to their meeting place, determined to communicate to her how he feels.

She was gone!

Then he sees her picture in the store window--and her name!

TOAST-O-MATIC!

We ran away together.

And it's true love and a dual power supply forever in T.L. McBeth's toasty warm love story Robot in Love (Henry Holt and Company, 2018). Artist McBeth's simple artwork depicts his love-stricken suitor dandily dressed, in simple black and white drawings accented with soft reds, right down to the Valentine hearts in his visual orbits. For youngsters who prefer their love stories on the silly side, this is a heart-warming Valentine Day's story which will not fail to engage the giggle gears in young readers in a sweet tale of cyborg romance.

For more offbeat Valentine fare, pair this one with Kelly DiPucchio's hilarious Zombie in Love (see review here).

Drop-Dead Romance: Zombie In Love: by Kelly DiPucchio

MORTIMER WAS LONELY.

CUPID'S BALL WAS JUST A WEEK AWAY, AND HE DIDN'T HAVE A SWEETHEART.

But Mortimer the Zombie is nobody's sweetheart now.

Not for lack of trying, mind you. Mortimer just can't seem to get the hang of romancing the lasses. He tries a nice red heart--freshly-extracted and still barely beating--but the girls just run away screaming. He tucks his favorite pet worms into the coffin-shaped box of chocolates he presents to one charming chick, but she flees the page in fear and trembling. His gift to the cute waitress at the diner--a diamond ring (still on its former owner's finger)--goes over like a lead-lined casket. His want ad in the lovelorn column of the classifieds--"TALL, DEAD, AND HANDSOME"--inexplicably goes without a reply.

But Mortimer is a swain not easily dissuaded. Dateless but undaunted, he decides to go stag to the ball. He heads off to shop for a new suit--at the nearby undertaker's parlor--and sets off for Cupid's Ball, full of unrequited desire and high hopes.

The joint is jumping, with cavorting couples crowding the dance floor. Mortimer takes up a hopeful stance near the refreshment table, hoping to spot a similarly stag damsel who's looking for a dance partner, but his best greenish smiles and wormy roses seem to discourage snacking and sends the lovelies loping for the nearest ladies' lounge. Soon nobody seems to be in the mood for punch and cookies.

The crowd thins, the band goes into their "goodnight, ladies" repertoire, the staff begins to sweep up, and it looks like Cupid's Ball is going to be a bust for poor lonely Mort.

But then a solitary girl straggles up to the punch bowl and gives Mortimer a hopeful smile--a gorgeously green smile. Never mind that she spills the punch, falls flat on her face, and breaks off a leg in the process! Mildew Mildred is obviously Mortimer's true love, and after they dance the night away (once she reattaches her foot), they go out for a romantic walk through the graveyard, (detached) hand in (detached) hand, and the two soul mates drive off in their very own limo:

HIS AND HEARSE!

In the perfect antidote to hearts and flowers fiction, Kelly Di Pucchio's drop-dead funny Zombie in Love (Atheneum, 2011) takes the zombie lit craze to a whole new level. Filled with Scott Campbell's wry sight gags and dreary palette which gives black humor a new lease on life, this spoof on the lonely-guy-meets-girl love story will evince a gaggle of gross-out giggles, punctuated with "eeeuuuwwws" and "yucks," from kids in the primary grades who find the whole love thing a bit "grossening" anyway. A great little storytime treat with some heart-y har-hars for the pre-Valentine season.

Wicked Weird: My Rotten Friend by Stephanie J. Blake

SHE'S MY BEST FRIEND.

BUT I WON'T LIE.

PENELOPE SMELLS

LIKE SOMETHING DIED.

And while everyone else in the class is growing, Penelope seems to be, er, losing it.

Teeth, well, sure. Everyone in class loses one now and then. But Penelope is... kinda running low on them. That doesn't stop her from biting now and again, though. And one day she turned up missing ... (I hate to say it) an eyeball. Flies begin to circle her head.

Penelope's a real gross-out girl. She's acting strange, too.

SHE SAID SHE'S IN AN EATING MOOD.

BUT SHE DIDN'T WANT TO SHARE MY FOOD.

And when Penelope bites a coach, she has to leave school.

I HAVE TO TAKE MY BEST FRIEND HOME.

I RIDE MY BIKE. SHE JUST SHUFFLES ALONG.

Birds fall out of the trees and cats run away shrieking, as Penelope drops a few body parts along the sidewalk.

Some friendships have their ups and downs, and when your best friend's interests are centered on a "zombie buffet," the relationship seems doomed, in Stephanie J. Blake's My Rotten Friend (Albert Whitman and Company, 2015). Illustrator Mariano Epelbaum adds to the satire, setting the story in a cartoon-style idyllic, picket-fenced town, while author Blake has freaky fun spoofing all the usual zombie tropes in a story that will appeal to kids bored with friendly ghosties and winsome witches but with a stomach for the undead genre and like their Halloween tales with a ghastly tongue-in-cheek twist.

For funny zombie stories that offer a kitchy heartwarming twist, try Kelly DiPucchio's Zombie in Love and Zombie in Love 2 + 1 (see reviews here)

Break A Leg! Zombelina by Kristyn Crow

MY NAME IS ZOMBELINA AND I LOVE TO DANCE!
I MOONWALK WITH MUMMIES AND BOOGIE WITH BATS.
I SPIN LIKE A SPECTRE AND GLIDE LIKE A GHOST.

Zombelina's mom decides that it's time for dance lessons, and little Zee is soon off on the family broomstick to Madame Maladroit's School of Ballet.  The other little student ballerinas look askance at Zombelina's green complexion, and although Mdm. M. admires her extreme extension (her leg flies high above the barr),  the others keep their distance. And when Zombelina executes a grande pirouette, her image even shatters the practice room mirror.

But despite the fearful glances of her corps de ballet, Zombelina  persists, and soon it's time for the Maladroit student recital. Zombelina has practiced her plies constantly for the bats in her attic and thinks she's ready for the footlights, but when the music starts, she finds herself frozen with stage fright in the middle of the stage.

I  QUIVERED AND SHIVERED RIGHT DOWN TO MY BONES.
I HELD OUT MY ARMS, AND I MADE A FEW MOANS.
"A ZOMBIE!" THE CROWD CRIED WITH HORRIFIED SCREAMS.
THIS WASN'T THE BALLET DEBUT OF MY DREAMS!

Zombelina's ghoulish groans clear the room, except for her loyal family and their spectral friends, but with the pressure off, Zee dances with a heartfelt abandon that leaves her audience howling. Madame Maladroit, who has probably experienced worse horrors at student recitals, is pleased.

"BRAVA! MAGNIFIQUE!
DREADFULLY UNIQUE!"

It had to happen. Some author was bound to combine those two all-the-rage picture books themes, ballet and zombies, and it seems that Kristyn Crow has done it well in her just-in-time-for-Halloween rhyming zombie story, Zombelina (Bloomsbury, 2013). Artist Molly Idle adds much interest to the story with lots of campy details, such as Zombelina's house on Twisted Lane, her baby brother's cauldron car seat, and Zombelina's tire swing which is actually a life preserver reading RMS Titanic. Greatly abetted by Molly Idle's downright sweet take on not-so-grisly girl zombies, Crow's latest has drawn no moans and groans from the reviewers. Rather, they predict a bright future for ballerina Zombelina. "An unusually well-done mix of Halloween, dance, and family that's sure to please many youngsters," says School Library Journal.

Zombelina lends itself well to a storytime combo with Pace's and Pham's equally trendy Vampirina Ballerina (see review here) and DiPucchio's drop-dead funny Zombie in Love (see my review here).

Back to School: Dog Days of School by Kelly DiPucchio

CHARLIE WAS TIRED OF GOING TO SCHOOL.

"YOU'RE LUCKY YOU DON'T HAVE GO TO SCHOOL!" CHARLIE TOLD NORMAN.

Charlie dreads the sound of the alarm clock's ringing on Monday morning, while his dog Norman gets to roll over and sleep as long as he pleases. Charlie look out his window and whispers a wish to the first star he sees.

I WISH I WAS A DOG.

In Kelly DiPucchio's funny wish-fulfillment fantasy, Charlie and Norman change places while keeping their own bodies. On Monday Norman jumps out of bed, brushes his teeth, straps on his backpack, and heads off to make the bus while Charlie curls back up in Norman's bed and snores on into the morning. Ahhh!

At school as Charlie, Norman has mixed success with the curriculum. The other kids give him a curious look as he takes Charlie's seat and begins to practice his letters along with them. At art time he carefully sculpts a clay fireplug. At music time he shakes a maraca in the rhythm section, and at storytime, he suffers through boring kitty stories. The other kids don't care for his way of making soccer passes with his mouth, and his teacher gives him timeout for chewing his pencil (and her shoes)!

Meanwhile, Charlie is finding the dog's life not everything it's cracked up to be either. It's boring home alone all day. He eats nothing but dull, dry dog chow and drinks from the toilet, and a trip to the groomer's for a toenail trim, clip, and blow dry makes a morning shower look like fun. And then when he does a little digging in the flowers, he gets himself locked in the laundry room and finds himself, literally, in the dog house, chilling out all night in the chilly backyard. Charlie is ready to return to his old life, but his parent's can't read his notes and don't understand when he woofs his plea.

"Be careful what you wish for" is the popular time-honored premise of Kelly DiPucchio's latest, Dog Days of School (Hyperion Press, 2014). Author DiPucchio and artist Brian Biggs team up to tell this tale, DiPucchio in a deadpan narrative description of events and Biggs using his comic illustrations of Charlie trying to drink from the toilet or fit into the doghouse to point up the obvious humor of this job swap. Kids will sympathize with Charlie's desire to skip school but laugh at his efforts to fit in as a dog, perhaps getting a new perspective on why boys go to school and dogs, well, go outside.

Kelly DiPucchio is the popular author of the best-selling Grace for President, as well as Zombie in Love, Crafty Chloe, and her recent Gaston, another dog identity switcheroo tale.

Spooky Twosomes: You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman

I'm a zombie. Who are you?

Me? I am a zombie, too.

Well, we are a dreadful pair.

Yes, I know. It isn't fair.

People scatter when they see us.

Not a person wants to be us.

We are hated. We are feared.

Well, admit it. We are weird.

What a couple. What a twosome.

We scare ourselves. We are so gruesome.

But this resourceful duo grab a couple of doll-faced masks and live their fantasy of being "charming cuties," bamboozling everyone before returning to their regular haunts:

Let's go home and just relax.
Have a plate of zombie snacks.
Read a zombie tale or two.
You read to me. I'll read to you!

In the latest of her wildly popular series, You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together (You Read to Me, I'll Read to You) Mary Ann Hoberman has left the fractured fairy tale format behind for a collection of thirteen not-too-scary rhyming stories featuring skeletons, ghouls, dinosaurs, zombies, mummies, and some intrepid children who love to be scared. Bouncy story poems, written for two color-coded voices, with color-coded conclusions to be spoken in unison, feature all the creepy critters of Halloween--a witch and her talented broom who squabble over who's the star of the show, a pair of kids who plot the mischief they could create if only they owned a skeleton, and a ghost and a mouse who are scared only of each other, to name a few. Each tale appears in a double-page spread designed by illustrator Michael Emberley, with a story-in-rhyme which just begs to be read aloud--by parent and child, by pairs of school reading buddies, at holiday parties, in school programs, or at candlelit sleepovers during the scary season.

Other fun-time titles for two voices in this series include You Read to Me, I'll Read to You Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together and You Read to Me, I'll Read to You Very Short Stories to Read Together.

Getting to YES! Hypnosis Harry by Catherine Bailey

HARRY'S PARENTS SAID NO TO EVERYTHING.

"NO toys in the toaster."

"NO robot dragons before 7 a.m."

But an infomercial on television offers Harry an inspiration--a way to procure permanent positive responses from his parents--HYPNOSIS!

Harry digs out his grandpa's old pocket watch and practices a slow steady pendulum swing in front of his cat. But it's a little hard to tell if his technique is working, since the cat sleeps most of the time anyway.

But he hits paydirt with the tot next door.

"Look deep into my eyes....

You... are... tired... of ... your... toys..."

Flushed with power, Harry proceeds to hypnotize his parents. As their eyes glaze over, he whispers...

"From now on, you will always say yes!"

"For dinner, I would like cupcakes. With a side of bacon."

At last Harry is in control. His parents wordlessly order anything he requests--a drum kit, crates of comic books, a trampoline, fireworks, and, not one, but two monkeys! He sacks the babysitter, and bans broccoli from the house.

Harry can do whatever he wants. He can do the forbidden--let his baby sister dig in the garden, enjoy free rein with a glue bottle, and even, horrors, touch the goldfish!

But things begin to go awry. The robot wrecks the rec room. The monkeys run amok. And when Harry invites his classmates to climb the tricerotops skeleton at the museum, they are forbidden to come over to Harry's house any more.

Still, Harry remains the happy hypnotist--until one day at the park, perfecting his ninja leap from the swing, he crashes into a girl on a bike. Her mom rushes to comfort her and point out that riding too close to the swings is a no-no. Harry's foot hurts, but his parents just sit on the grass in a stupor.

Harry looked to his parents for sympathy.

They drooled gently on their shoes.

Harry limps home, his zombie-like parents trailing behind. The monkeys are making even more of a mess of the house, with pizza boxes piled high, and melting ice cream all over the carpet.

At last Harry understands why parents say NO, what all those rules really mean.

Be safe.

Be nice

I love you.

And Harry knows just how to snap his parents out of their trance. He begs them to wake up and even say NO sometimes.

All's well that ends well--with a thorough housecleaning, a bath for Harry, and a review of the rules, in Catherine Bailey's hilarious latest, Hypnosis Harry (Sky Pony Press, 2016), in which our young hero learns that having permissive parents isn't all it's cracked up to be. Bailey's theme goes down easy, with a hug from Harry's parents, in a gentle cautionary tale about the perils of too much freedom, bolstered by artist Sarita Rich's wryly humorous page design which reinforces the premise with illustrations of misbehaviors that spill past the page margins and crafty use of fonts that highlight the highjinks. This story of wish-fulfillment fantasy is as much fun for young readers as a barrel of monkeys.

But is hypnosis on a permanent hiatus in Harry's household? Maybe, maybe not.... The final page shows Baby Sis in possession of the pocket watch, busy mesmorizing the monkeys....

Bailey's earlier book was her 2015 Mind Your Monsters. (see my review here.)

Trick-or-Treat Feat! Me and My Dragon, Scared of Halloween by David Biedrzycki

ME AND MY DRAGON LOVE ALL THE SAME THINGS.

WE ENJOY ALL THE SAME STUFF--EXCEPT ...

I LOVE HALLOWEEN.

DRAGON? NOT SO MUCH.

The boy hopes that a bit of window shopping will fire Dragon's enthusiasm for dressing up for trick-or-treat. Walking along calmly on his leash, Dragon takes one look at the mummy, werewolf, and zombie in Eddie's Costume Shop window and flies down the storm drain on the street corner.

The boy tries a little bibliotherapy, reading to Dragon from books titled Ghosts Don't Say Boo! and My Friend Frank. He tries out a few costume ideas from 101 Costumes for Pets. The mummy costume is coming along fairly well until Dad, heading off to the bathroom with his newspaper, starts to fume when he notices where all the toilet paper has gone. His RoboDragon mask lacks visibility, Dragon freaks out at the sight of himself as a Zombie, and the cute little tutu his owner creates turns out not to be fireproof--not a feasible costume for a fire-breathing friend.

Almost out of ideas, our boy finally has a brainstorm. Why not take his pet out as the ultimate disguise--a dragon costume! Sometimes the simplest plan is the best, in David Biedrzycki's latest Me and My Dragon story, Me and My Dragon: Scared of Halloween (Charlesbridge, 2013). Set against Biedryzcki's deadpan narrator's style, the highlight of the story are the illustrations of his reluctant Dragon, hamming it up as a schlock-rock Elvis impersonator or scaring himself into the realm of the undead as a zombie. With lots of giggle bait within the illustrations, this story can be a fun cure for kids for whom those roaming Halloween "monsters" going from door to door are not exactly a treat.

Say Goodnight, Albert: Goodnight, Lab (A Scientific Parody) by Chris Ferrie

IN THE GREAT GREEN LAB,
THERE WAS A LASER
AND A LAB NOTEBOOK

AND A PICTURE OF EINSTEIN
WITH A STERN LOOK.

No picture book has been more beloved--and more parodied--than Margaret Wise Brown's perennial best-seller, Goodnight Moon, with its familiar green cover and irregular verse form that has chronicled the steps in bedtime preparation and persuasion for generations of tykes. Indeed, the cover layout is so iconic that the subtitle A Scientific Parody is hardly necessary on Chris Ferrie's latest tot science title, Goodnight Lab: A Scientific Parody (Baby University) (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky Books, 2017).

Chris Ferrie, a writer devoted to introducing the vocabulary and concepts of science to the nursery school set, faithfully parallels the narration of Margaret Wise Brown's bedtime story. With the dour image of Albert Einstein looking down from the wall, we bid goodnight to both the thermometer and the spectronomer and selected scientific apparatus and paraphernalia and even the clutter of labwork, and Ferrie even includes that bugaboo of academics everywhere:

GOODNIGHT, RUBBISH.

GOODNIGHT, GRUMPY OLD PROFESSOR
SHOUTING "PUBLISH!"

In his several Baby University board books, such as his amazingly top-selling Quantum Physics for Babies (Baby University), Ferrie avoids the chicken-and-egg question by introducing scientific vocabulary and complex concepts to the very young simultaneously, believing that naming big ideas goes right along with early understanding of scientific principles.

In this clever parody, however, author-illustrator Ferrie offers no theories, just a comic take-off on an old bedtime standby, tossing in items such as lab coats, the ubiquitous sticky notes, lab notebooks, and ammeters and voltmeters along the way. This little board book also offers some chuckles for grownups, while simultaneously stimulating more questions than yawns--which was likely the author's plan all along.

For youngsters who love wordplay as well as lab paraphernalia, pair this one with Michael Rex's killer-diller knockoff, Goodnight Goon: a Petrifying Parody, (read review here) Rex's equally punny Runaway Mummy: a Petrifying Parody, or Michael Teitelbaum's spoof of Eric Carle's classic caterpillar tale, The Very Hungry Zombie: A Parody.

Bwaa-Ha-Ha! Halloween Howlers by Michael Tertelbaum

KNOCK KNOCK!
WHO'S THERE?
HOWL.
HOWL WHO?
HOWL I KEEP FROM LAUGHING IF YOU KEEP TELLING THESE DUMB JOKES?

Some grownups love knock-knocks and some hate 'em, but most kids old enough to "get" a pun adore the genre. And thankfully for this Halloween, here comes a brand-new collection, Halloween Howlers: Frightfully Funny Knock-Knock Jokes (Harper Festival, 2011), written by Michael Tertelbaum and illustrated in jolly cartoon style by Jannie Ho.

Tertelbaum provides a frame story for this collection, recapitulating a trick-or-treat expedition by a couple of kids, beginning with the "Home Scene" as the kids get into their gear and the "Street Scene" as they mix and mingle with the other costumed kids:

KNOCK KNOCK!
WHO'S THERE?
ZOMBIE.
ZOMBIE WHO?
ZOMBIE AFRAID! IT'S JUST A COSTUME!

Their venture soon takes them to the local haunted house, where the setting is bury scary:

KNOCK KNOCK!
WHO'S THERE?
DISPLACE.
DISPLACE WHO?
DISPLACE IS A WRECK!

The two trick-or-treaters go on to make the party scene, where they play the usual games and eat the usual treats, and finally loaded down with their boo-tiful boo-ty, they think about calling it a night.

KNOCK KNOCK!
WHO'S THERE?
HORROR!
HORROR WHO?
HORROR YOU GONNA CARRY ALL THAT CANDY?

There are plenty of moaning groaners and horrible howlers herein, and creepy critters and more jokes hide under the flaps which are well integrated into the illustrations, making this one an outing that will leave readers saying "Fangs for the funnies, folks," and hoping for more Halloween har-hars in their futures.

KNOCK KNOCK!
WHO'S THERE?
BOO!
BOO WHO?
DON'T CRY! HALLOWEEN WILL COME AGAIN NEXT YEAR!

Morphing the Monster: The Monsterator by Keith Graves

MASTER EDGAR DREADBURY
FOUND HALLOWEEN A BORE.

THE WHOLE BUSINESS OF COSTUMES
WAS A MISERABLE CHORE.

Master Edgar has the spooky mansion, the scary tree outside his window, the jack o' lantern on his candle stand, and the Eddie Munster haircut already. He hardly needs any Halloweenification. But duty calls, and after Edgar rejects his old vampire, zombie, and clown costumes, he drags himself downtown to shop for something suitable. Suddenly he spots a store he'd never seen before, The Emporium. It certainly has the right atmosphere.

IT WAS DANK AND DARK AS A CELLAR.

"SERVICE!!" HE CALLED.

When no one appears, Edgar looks around on his own. But there are no costumes to be seen.

But then he does see something that looks promising. It's a musty, dusty contraption with an enticing name:THE MONSTERATOR! The phlegmatic Edgar guesses instantly what this machine is supposed to do.

"OH, WHY NOT?"

Edgar puts his dime in the slot, steps inside, and ....

As electric sparks crackle through his body, his hair stands on end and Edgar quivers, shivers, and...

EDGAR WAS MONSTERATED

FROM HIS KNEES TO HIS NOSE

AND MONSTERATED SOME MORE; FROM HIS TEETH TO HIS TOES.

And it's GREAT! Edgar has horns. He's hairy and scary, with dragon scales and tail. He's gorgeously gruesome and he scares the heck out of everyone. It's the best Halloween ever.

But when Edgar is done chasing yowling black cats, squeamish squirrels, and terrified trick-or-treating tots, he returns for his de-Monsteration! But... The Emporium, Monsterator and all, has vanished.

Has Edgar learned his lesson? Has he seen the folly of trying to fool Mother Nature? Is he filled with regret? Is there some wise wizard troll or hairy fairy ready to reverse his monstrous transformation?

Uh, NO. And Edgar likes it that way, in Keith Graves' duly droll The Monsterator (Roaring Brook Press, 2014). As illustrator, the appropriately surnamed Graves offers all the trappings and tropes of the monster mansion, done up in suitably somber and murky tones, and as author his quaint and curious quatrains summon up the spirit of that other Edgar (Poe), while providing some delightfully funny rhymes.

But... THERE'S MORE! At the back of the book Graves provides readers with their own chance to monsterate Edgar with a stack of quarter-page flip pages so that kids can re-form Edgar from head to toe with a total of 625 new monsterated versions of our hero. This book is a total hoot--one kids will love to share as they combine and re-combine the possibilities. The book will wear out before the kids do, making Graves' The Monsterator a sure-fire hit for scary season reading.