FICTION

Romping Monsters, Stomping Monsters

by Jane YOLEN
illus. by Kelly Murphy. 32p. Candlewick. July 2013. RTE $14.99. ISBN 978-0-7636-5727-7. LC 2012943655.
COPY ISBN
PreS-K—Yolen and Murphy are at it again. This time, their monsters engage in plenty of playground fun. Yolen's perfectly precise text, repetition, and rhyme make the story ideal for reading aloud to even the littlest monsters. These rainbow-hued beasts hopscotch, slide, and race around a park, but after eating "monster-sicles," some monsterly behavior leads to a lesson in saying "sorry." Murphy's tone-on-tone illustrations in warm greens, blues, and oranges give the creatures a fuzzy rather than menacing look. This blending of color may make the nuances of each page hard to pick out from a distance, but the technique lends itself to even more enjoyment one-on-one. Pair this title with Helen Ketteman's Goodnight, Little Monster (Marshall Cavendish, 2010) for a storytime even the wildest participants will enjoy.—Jenna Boles, Greene County Public Library, OH
A whole passel of googly-eyed creatures (some with two eyes, others with one, three, four, or more) cavort around a park, to the rhythm of Yolen's spare, easy-to-follow rhyming text: "Monsters hopscotch. / Monsters slide. / Monsters swing and piggy-back ride." A story line emerges from Murphy's multi-hued (but, happily, in subdued shades) oil, acrylic, and gel illustrations: a mother monster and her children -- one is red with spots, the other is yellow with stripy arms and legs -- are having a blast until a tussle at the water fountain leads to hurt feelings. No worries: an apology and balloons make everything "all better," and the siblings toodle off out of the park, furry-hand in furry-hand. elissa gershowitz
Reviewed by Jenna Boles , Jul 01, 2013

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