Creepy Monsters, Sleepy Monsters

by Jane Yolen, Kelly Murphy (Illustrator)

Overview

"There’s plenty in this scary-sweet book to please children all year round." — Kirkus Reviews

Creep, gurgle, crawl, tumble! Meet two young monsters who are far from scary — they’re too busy having fun. They go to school, play outside with their friends, and eat after-school snacks. But they also have a bedtime, whether or not they’re ready for it! Young children and parents alike will find much to identify with as they follow these lovable little monsters getting ready for bed. With wildly colorful illustrations full of whimsy and warmth, Kelly Murphy brings Jane Yolen’s gently rhyming tale to rambunctious life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763662837
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	07/09/2013
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,076,764
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD330L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

 

Editorial Reviews

More cute than creepy, this lullaby follows two monsters from classroom to bedtime routine. The narration benefits enormously from witty illustrations by Murphy, which abound in slithery, sinister asides.
—New York Times

This brief lullaby-story provides just-right toddler-sized chills… Silly going-to-sleep sounds such as “Growl / Gurgle / Burp” gently bring this soon-to-be popular book to an end. There's plenty in this scary-sweet book to please children all year round.
—Kirkus Reviews

The monsters look like they walked off a Maurice Sendak casting call, with their big, wobbly bodies and almost random sprinklings of horns, tentacles, and eyeballs. Yolen winds down her lullaby with night noises (Burp / Grrrr / Snarl / Snarf) that peter away as the two monstrous siblings finally conk out. Bedtime fare you can count on.
—Booklist

The book is filled with enough slap-dash action, humor, and gentle disobedience to keep readers eager for more readings—and probably not all that eager for sleep.
—Publishers Weekly

Though Halloween tales and lots of candy may keep kids far from their beds, sleep must come eventually. There is no better way to wind down trick-or-treaters than with Creepy Monsters, Sleepy Monsters by children’s book legend Jane Yolen… It’s the perfect end to a spooky October day.
—BookPage

The biggest treats here are the details buried in Kelly Murphy’s playful paintings of the monsters, more gentle, domesticated cousins of Maurice Sendak’s classic wild things. Vocabulary words to read aloud include growl, burp, grrrr, and that all time parental favorite: Zzzzz.
—USA Today

Noteworthy for its wonderful art with cute horned and multi-eyed monsters playing like normal little kids stalling at bedtime and falling asleep after claiming “I'm not sleepy.” A perfect bedtime read with only a few words per page and monstrously clever illustrations.
—Houston Chronicle

From the Publisher

Swinging a few branches across the evolutionary tree, Yolen turns her attention from the misbehaving dinosaurs of the How Do Dinosaurs... series to garden-variety monsters that leave school en masse around 3 P.M. Murphy's acrylic and oil spreads feature the not-so-creepy, multicolored beasties against soft copper and aluminum backgrounds. Brandishing four eyes, two horns, tentacles, stripes or slug-like bodies, the adorably ugly monsters engage in rambunctious playground activities to the tune of a rhymed lullaby ("Monsters run,/ Monsters stumble,/ Monsters hip-hop,/ Monsters tumble"), before the story focuses on two horned, pint-size siblings returning to their comforting, candlelit cave. After they wolf down worm sandwiches, their four-eyed parent wrestles them into the tub and then into their beds, where they play the games that monsters (and children) might play in the dark ("GROWL Gurgle/ BURP Grrrr"). Their protestations finally give way to slumber, but the book is filled with enough slap-dash action, humor, and gentle disobedience to keep readers eager for more readings—and probably not all that eager for sleep. Ages 3–5. (July)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 1—A whimsical bedtime story to share again and again. Yolen's rhythmic, sometimes repetitive verse is perfectly matched by Murphy's double-page illustrations. Children will enjoy the contrast of a familiar routine with a cast of bright-eyed and animated monsters. After making their way home from school, two monster children eat dinner, play inside, bathe, pray, and go to bed, reluctantly at first. However, their attempts to keep each other awake with funny noises and silly games eventually prove futile. Through the text and pictures, the mundane machinations are brought to life with humorous and charming details. Background colors fade from light to dark as the sun goes down, and the light at home is less bright but warmer than that of the sun. Descriptions grow shorter and more specific until the only words are the noises the youngsters make as they go to sleep. As monster stories go, this one is ultimately more sweet than scary. Pair it with James Otis Thach's The Tickle Monster Is Coming (Bloomsbury, 2008) for a storyhour or recommend it as a bedtime book. A first choice for any library serving sweet, silly little monsters.—Heather Talty, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City

School Library Journal

This brief lullaby-story provides just-right toddler-sized chills.

The action begins at 3:00 as school lets out. Yolen describes it all in rhyme with spare sentences and phrases: "Monsters creep, / Monsters crawl // Over the meadow / And up the wall." Murphy chooses a muted palette to illustrate the motley bunch of innocuous creatures sporting a horn or two, various numbers of eyes, an occasional tail or tufts of fur. Preschool monster fans are sure to pore over and giggle at Murphy's droll, detailed paintings executed in a mix of oil, acrylic and gel. They will also easily relate to the depicted routine of coming home, eating dinner, taking a bath and getting into bed, and they will be charmed rather than spooked as the text's gentle cadence begins to work a calming magic. But the monsters show a last burst of energy—of course—as they "toss and turn and bounce" before finally snuggling in for the night. Silly going-to-sleep sounds such as "Growl / Gurgle / Burp" gently bring this soon-to-be popular book to an end.

There's plenty in this scary-sweet book to please children all year round. (Picture book. 2-4)

Kirkus Reviews