The Monsters are watching.

Monsters Eat Whiny Children
Written by Bruce Eric Kaplan
Illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummings
Simon & Schuster, 2010
31 pages
Fantasy

            I was at the Jacksonville University Library I saw this funny looking book laying on a table.  The cover itself isn’t especially detailed, but the pea-green color and the simple, child-like text and sketch did draw my eye.  Mostly, I picked it up because the title of the book was too funny to pass up.  Once I started reading it, I could not stop laughing.  The book is about two children that whined about everything.  Their father was tired of hearing them whine, so he told them that a monster was going to eat them.  They did not believe and continued to whine until one day the monster came and kidnapped them.  While at the monsters house, the children met several different monsters from the neighbor and were the featured ingredient in several of the monsters’ failed attempts at cooking/eating the children.  I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone, but you might want to grab a cucumber sandwich as you read the book and enjoy a short lunch laugh.  The recipe is in the book if you need it.

            The cartoon illustrations are done in ink and water color.  The illustrations are done in black ink with red, yellow, blue, orange, purple and green.  The text is bold black letters like a child’s hand writing.  The text and illustrations are combined on all the pages with text and art work intertwined throughout.  The story looks like a book written in a book.

            A preschool through first or second grade reader will enjoy this book almost as much as the adults reading along with them.  The way the story is written and the emphasis on not whining make the story especially good for the preK to second grade group.  The story depicts whining textually and visually to show what it sounds and looks like to an adult.  In the story when the children are whining their mouths are red.  Even for such a young age, this is a good example to reinforce symbolism and emotions represented by certain colors.  This book would be good for character building - to teach the importance of not whining and learning the proper response to things that don’t go “their way.”  A language arts lesson would be good for vocabulary and dictionary skills with some of the words used in the book, like vindaloo.  This is an Indian dish that I had to look up myself.  It will also work well to teach children what a dictionary is (online or in print) and how to use it to understand the meaning of words they may encounter while reading.  A social studies lesson would be good on how people (monsters) work together to solve a problem and work through differences without whining.  Purported awards/nominations include the School Library Journal Best Books of the Year and the Iowa Goldfinch Award.