I Loathe You

PreS-Gr 2—A rhyming variation and a play on words revolve around the theme of a mother's love for her child. Little Monster "loathes" his mother, and she loathes him right back. When he asks how much, she answers "more than chicken pox,/more than stinky, sweaty socks" and even "more than garbage in a dump." What about bad sunburns? Is Little Monster loathed more than that? Big Monster answers that she dreamed of him even before he was born, and she loathes him "more than what the cat dragged in,/with what the dog threw up thrown in." She will loathe him even if he slips up and says "please" or "thank you" one day, even if he stops chewing chairs or loses his stink. A mother's love/loathe truly knows no bounds. Children will enjoy discovering the joke that even if these monsters' world is backwards by comparison, parents everywhere still love their children. The colorful cartoon illustrations, created in acrylic and charcoal, are not particularly scary, but rather goofy-looking, keeping with the humor of the tale. Little Monster's underbite makes him a prime candidate for some orthodontia down the road. A cute twist on a familiar theme.—Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA