Let's Play Monsters!

by Lucy Cousins, Lucy Cousins (Illustrator)

Overview

Inspired by a game she played with her own grandchild, the creator of Maisy brings her crayon-bright colors to a story that will have little monsters running for a listen.

You be a monster
who is green and scary,
with sharp pointy teeth
and feet that are hairy.

Little Gabriel loves to play monsters. And his family is happy to oblige, from Josie the hungry beast (munch, crunch, scrunch!) to Uncle Rufus with horns and a tail (oink oink moo!), and even Nonna the jelly monster (I’ll gobble you up!). But what happens when Mom-the-monster comes to eat Gabriel up when it’s time for bed? Lucy Cousins offers an entertaining and heartwarming celebration of family as she follows an imaginative child through a day of escalating giggles to a cozy moment before sleep.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536210606
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/08/2020
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,098,866
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Lucy Cousins is the creator of the beloved Maisy series. She is also the author-illustrator of the widely acclaimed Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, as well as I’m the Best; Hooray for Fish!; Hooray for Birds!; Splish, Splash, Ducky; and a picture book series about Little Fish.

Editorial Reviews

The frolicking diversion validates a child’s imaginative ability in an engaging bedtime scenario.
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2020-06-16
Three-year-old Gabriel encourages various family members to playact monsters in a cavorting game of chase around the house.

Eager to participate, older sib Josie becomes “green and scary, / with sharp, pointy teeth / and feet that are hairy.” Uncle Rufus sprouts imaginary “horns like a cow / and a tail like a pig.” The family pet, Kitty Cat, has “long sharp claws, / all scritchy and scratchy,” and Nonna becomes a “bright-pink jelly / with big round eyes / and feet that are smelly.” While the monsters chase the child, Gabriel easily escapes, chortling “Hee, hee, hee! / But you can’t catch me!” in a continual refrain that kids will easily repeat. The rhyming text is as much fun to recite as the game of chase is to watch. The story unfolds with comforting predictability, Gabriel inviting play on one double-page spread and on the next gleefully running away from the humorously transformed family member. Cousins’ signature, childlike black-outlined drawings in bold primary colors enhance the romp all the way to the last dinosaurlike monster, Mommy, who has spikes on her back and gobbles little boys up. Just as the day is ending, Gabriel is caught and, not surprisingly, becomes his own monster “with a funny green head, / who is tired and sleepy / and ready for bed.” Gabriel, Uncle Rufus, Nonna, and Mommy all present white; Josie is a child of color.

The frolicking diversion validates a child’s imaginative ability in an engaging bedtime scenario. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews