Hey, That's MY Monster!

August 8, 2016
Ethan, previously seen in 2009’s I Need My Monster, relies on Gabe, the monster under his bed, to keep him in bed where he belongs. After Gabe plans to migrate across the hall to scare Ethan’s younger sister, Emma, into staying in bed, Ethan helps Emma summon alternative monsters so that he can keep Gabe. Emma is cut from the same cloth as Boo from Monsters Inc.—she’s tickled, not terrified, by the visiting monsters—and McWilliam’s cinematic artwork embraces the comedy of the situation as Emma puts bracelets on the snakelike tail of one monster and jumps rope with the tentacles of another. It’s an entertaining reminder that a little fear can be fun. Ages 5–7. (Sept.)

This review has been corrected. In a previous version, it was incorrectly stated that Gabe, not Ethan, "helps Emma summon alternative monsters."

July 1, 2016
Another round of under-the-bed-boojum auditions from the creators of I Need My Monster (2009).Outraged that his personal bed monster, Gabe, has decamped to attend to his wakeful little sister, a lad marches across the hall to remonstrate. Given three chances to conjure up a suitable new monster for hyperactive Emma, three drippy, wormy, tentacled horrors are summoned in turn. Unfortunately, Emma turns out to be delighted rather than properly terrified, and none will do. Will the boy be forced to go monsterless? Drawn with big, shiny eyes and oversized heads, the two light-skinned sibs glow with energy--but the garishly hued monsters in McWilliam's toy-strewn bedroom scenes are show stealers, whether exuding pools of pink slime or rearing up in glowering, warty menace in vain efforts to get Emma into bed. At last, in a satisfying if not particularly logical twist, it turns out that Gabe himself has a little sister, Stella, whose threatened attack on the giggling Emma's toes results in a quick bonding and, a page turn later, snoozing children on both sides of the hall. What could be more soporific at bedtime than hairy, green-haired slime ogres with nightlight-orange eyes? (Picture book. 5-8)

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