Monsters, Not Incorporated

Steve Light's Have You Seen My Dragon? was one of the first picture books I reviewed on the blog.  As you may know if you follow my Instagram account, dragons are very popular here in the Bookworm house.  And, true to form, Light's follow-up, Have You Seen My Monster?  (published in 2015) is just as delightful as the first book.  Whereas the dragon book follows a dragon and his boy around the city (complete with map end pages!), the monster edition is set at an idyllic county fair. 

I love Light's detailed mostly black-and-white illustrations.  And, his curly-haired protagonist has a lot of animation throughout as she searches for her monster friend in all the spreads.  (Is the monster the protagonist, or is it the girl?)

Little ones will delight in not only hunting for both of them on each spread, but also finding all the featured shapes. 

I love going to the fair, and I love amusement parks, so this book hits it right out of the park for me.  The endearing and very huggable-looking monster doesn't hurt either.

Truth be told, my mom calls all of her grandchildren and children 'monsters' or 'monster-ling-ling'.  But only in the most lovingly and motherly way.  Like when I broke my foot in college (left fifth metatarsal), she said "What did you do that for, you monster?"  And then she and my dad drove up to UCLA to check on me.  And maybe bring me some frozen peas to put on my foot, which we initially thought was a sprain. 

So I don't think of 'Monsters' as anything but cute and friendly.  Just like in Pixar's Monsters Inc., they are misunderstood creatures.  And may even be a friend. 

Ages: toddler Monster-ling-lings on up. 

Readability: A fun picture book to read out loud, with not that many words.  Though your little one will stop you at every page to admire the spreads.  My favorite is the Funhouse one.  Or the carousel.  Really, it's hard to choose....

Diversity side note:  Well, there's a bearded lady (someone with PCOS, maybe?).....and some various-sized and various-aged people, but not too much diversity that's easily-spotted.  Unless you think the main character could be mixed with her curly hair, but I don't think so. 

Tell Dr Bookworm!

What's your favorite ride at an amusement park or county fair? What's your favorite monster-related book?  Let us know in the comments!

Fun House

My favorite spread