Beware the monster

PreS-Gr 1-Warning: this book contains a child-eating monster! Packed with anticipation and amusement, this detail-rich picture book warns readers at each page turn to beware the monster. As the narrator humorously cautions children, the colorful sketchy illustrations show the monster quickly gobbling up all of the apples on the trees, followed by the leaves, the trees themselves, and even the grazing cows! Once there is nothing left but white space on the page, the monster eyes readers. Right before the monster can get any closer, he lets out an enormous burp, and returns all of his previously devoured meals back to the page in a comical arrangement. The result is a playful mash-up of Mo Willems's That is Not a Good Idea and Lucille Colandro's "There Was an Old Lady" series. VERDICT With plenty of read-aloud appeal, this picture book is an engaging choice for a silly storytime. Recommended for purchase where young children clamor for "scary" material.-Brianne Colombo, Fairfield Free Public Library, NJ © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A hairy, horned turquoise-and-ocher monster's insatiable appetite drives the action in this metafictive picture book that combines humor, fear, and a touch of gross-out humor.Readers are warned that "This book contains a monster with a GREAT BIG APPETITE!!" At first he "does look pretty small. But that's because he's far away," napping peacefully in a busy landscape filled with apple trees, birds, and cows. But then he wakes up (it's your fault), ties a napkin around his neck, and starts to feast. First he eats all the apples on the trees. Then he eats the leaves, the trees themselves, and everything else on the page. (Bye-bye, cows.) In a moment of fourth-wall-breaking terror he turns his attention toward readers and advances ominously. Well-timed suspense builds to the breaking point, when, at the last moment before readers' doom, the monster upchucks spectacularly, hurling flora and fauna out in a bizarre jumble of bees that hoot and apple-bedecked cows, who apparently suffer no loss of life. The monster, whose eyes are bigger than his stomach (ha, get it), will "take care of you later," whenever a child begs to be read this book again.This funny and energetic story is a worthy addition to the pantheon of meta monster books, offering its own unique fillips of delight. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.