Friday, October 17, 2014

Five Fall Favorites on Friday from Frankenstein to Falling Leaves by Andrea Perry

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich
by Adam Rex

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade ..." or in this case, if the villagers chase you with torches and pelt you with rotten produce, make a sandwich!  Adam Rex delights us with a number of stories about monsters, and even some about monsters AND food.  Some of the hilarious offbeat monster subjects include The Creature from the Black Lagoon, who went swimming too soon after eating, The Lunchsack of Notre Dame, a lament about why one hump lumps this poor lad with all the other monsters, and Count Dracula Doesn't Know He's Been Walking Around All Night With Spinach in His Teeth, since of course his castle has no mirrors.  Who should tell him so he's not embarrassed any further?? Halloween Hilarity Abounds.

My Monster Mama Loves Me So
by Laura Leuck and Mark Buehner

A light breezy monster verse about how baby monster knows how much its mother loves it.  Who else but a loving parent would take their child to the swamp to swim, bake cookies filled with bugs, comb cobwebs out of their bangs, or breathe fire to start a cozy blaze in the fireplace? If your monster mama also tucks you into bed at night with a bat, that's how much you are loved.

Leaf Man
by Lois Ehlert

Have you seen him?  Leaf Man, a life-sized leaf collage (with body parts identified on a separate ending page) traveling across pages of die-cut panoramas, is simply beautiful.  And after you enjoy his wondrous autumn adventure, you too will go looking for your own "leaf man" (or woman!)  as the rainbow of October leaves gently drift and glide all around us.

Monday's Troll
by Jack Prelutsky and Peter Sis

Mother Ogre's Lullaby, just one of the seventeen poems in this monstrous collection, has always been one of my favorites:
     "Hush baby ogre, stop raving and rest,
     Slumber, sweet savage impossible pest.
     Stifle your tantrum, no kicking, don't bite.
     Close your red eye...baby ogre, good-night."

We also visit with witches, trolls, Bigfoot, wizards and goblins, not to mention a solitary yeti feasting on dinosaur bones. From stale witch birthday cakes with snakes instead of candles, to an invisible wizard unable to reverse its spell, to a troll full of sour applesauce, you will enjoy all of their garish gruesomeness.

The Monsterator
by Keith Graves

 Who could resist a Halloween book with a cover such as this, advertising "625 Monsters Inside...Can You Find Them All?"
Meet Edgar, a poor bored boy who can't find a Halloween costume scary enough to scarify him.  He wanders past costume shops until he happens upon one he'd not noticed before.  Dark and understaffed, he finds an odd machine there, puts in a dime and steps inside.  So goes the rhymed verse tale of the Monsterator Machine, and what happens to Edgar once inside, complete with the fun final pages of a partitioned flipbook to monsterate on your own.

If you like to be scared silly, I am sure that one of these books is likely to delight!










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