If You're a Monster and You Know It

August 23, 2010
This father-daughter team builds on the winning formula of 2009's There Was an Old Monster with a silly spin on another familiar song. In digital illustrations, flamboyant angular monsters—composed of patterned geometric shapes with tentacles, teeth, and horns galore—follow the directives of the lyrics, which open with, "If you're a monster and you know it, snort and growl." The wild-eyed creatures, whose neon hues pop from the black backgrounds, subsequently smack their claws, stomp their paws, twitch their tails, wiggle their warts, and roar—and you can bet kids will be doing the same. A final, foldout spread shows the cast doing all of these things simultaneously. Between the spreads devoted to each verse are closeups of the monsters engaged in each activity, which both creates extra time for audience growling, wiggling, and roaring, and helps stretch the song to 32 pages. Like the previous book, readers can download the song, performed by Adrian Emberley (Rebecca's daughter and Ed's granddaughter), from Scholastic's Web site. This playful read-aloud is sure to energize story time. Ages 3–5.

August 1, 2010

In this rollicking interpretation of "If You're Happy and You Know It," brightly colored, digitally created monsters à la Caldecott Medalist Ed Emberley's Big Scary Green one run amok, wriggling and roaring, stomping and twitching! The never-frightening creatures are rendered in eye-popping psychedelic colors against a flat black background and feature horns, antennae, claws, teeth and any number of eyes. It's a family affair: The father-daughter pair cleverly interprets the text with lots of satisfying onomatopoeia and monstrous movements, while Rebecca Emberley's daughter, performing songwriter Adrian Emberley, provides an online version available for download. Monsters are instructed to snort and growl, smack their claws, stomp their paws, twitch their tails and perform other monster-appropriate activities on command, and it's impossible not to picture young children dancing along to the dynamic beat, with glee. Not for a quiet storytime but great for nursery and school groups or lively one-on-one reading, this will be a favorite with adults and children alike, allowing for both imaginative play and a raucous but structured outpouring of energy. Roar roar! (Picture book. 2-6)

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Starred review from September 1, 2010

PreS-Gr 1-Children will love this book. Set to the familiar tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It," this rendition has a downloadable CD, performed by Adrian Emberley, on the publisher's website. The exceptionally bright, digitally created monsters are set against a black background, which makes them almost 3-D in appearance. Each verse appears in an easy-to-read font and in a variety of colors that show up clearly on the dark page. The Emberleys have a knack for creating wonderfully creepy creatures. Though wacky, some with four eyes, pointy teeth, and sharp claws, they are not too scary for even the youngest child. Kids will be only too willing to pretend to be monsters and follow along to "snort and growl," "twitch your tail," and "wriggle your warts," as instructed, in order to prove their monsterness. The last page states, "Now, do it again...," and that will be no problem.-Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2010
Preschool-K On the tail of their similarly themed title, There Was an Old Monster (2009), the Emberleys return with another monstrous version of a classic rhyme. Their take on this participatory kindergarten staple maintains interest with repetitive stanzas (If youre a monster and you know it, / and you really want to show it, / if youre a monster and you know itsmack your claws) and frequent cues for reader behavior (SMACK, SMACK). Jet-black backgrounds set off neon cut-paper illustrations, the kind of patchwork beasties a kid might create. The climactic call for an encore ought to work; prepare for noise.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)