Monsters Story Time!

The children absolutely loved Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley. Slowly, so slowly big green monster appears as you read the story. He has two big yellow eyes, a long bluish-greenish nose, a big red mouth with sharp white teeth, two little squiggly ears, scraggly purple hair, and a big green face! But when the children and I tell the big green monster that we are not afraid of him, each part of him disappears until he vanishes.

If You're a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca and Ed Emberley is a story that you can sing! This story is sung to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It". Together, the children and I snorted, growled, smacked our claws (clapped our hands), stomped our paws (stomped our feet), twitched our tails, wiggled our warts, and gave a roar! Then we did everything!

In Monster Hug! by David Ezra Stein, two monsters (a blue monster and a red monster) meet, play together, and at the end of the story the big monsters tell them it is time for bedtime. The children enjoyed this story as well and I asked them various questions throughout the story, such as the following:
What are the monsters using to play ball?
Where is the blue monster hiding?
What is the blue monster squirting the red monster with?
What are the two monsters eating?
This is a fun interactive book and the children enjoyed answering the questions.
There were three other books about monsters that I found that I really liked, but I decided not to use them for story time. These books would be good for story time and/or read alouds.

Spike, the Mixed Up Monster by Susan Hood tells the story of Spike, who is a monster, but a monster who is no bigger than a lily pad. So, in spite of the hours he spends shaking his spikes and bearing his teeth, everybody just thinks he's cute and adorable! Spike is so disappointed and discouraged until one day a Gila monster arrives who is a huge and scary monster! All of the other animals run and hide. Spike pulls out all of his monster moves, but the Gila monster just laughs and tells Spike that nobody has ever smiled at him before. Spike just droops until the Gila monster tells Spike that Spike is the only one who can help him because nobody else will even talk to him. Spike shows the Gila monster how to get to his cousin's fiesta. After the Gila monster leaves, all of the other animals: el pato (the duck), el armadillo (the armadillo), and el campanol (a Mexican vole) come out and thank him. Spike is based on an axolotl: a special kind of salamander found in Mexico.

Quit Calling Me A Monster! by Jory John features a sensitive monster who dislikes being called a monster. It really hurts his feelings when you call him a monster even though he has horns, wild eyes, fangs, and a huge, toothy smile that glows in the dark. His name is Floyd Peterson, thank you very much. After all, would you like to be called "a little meat snack" or "the kid I'm going to chomp up."? This is a great book to introduce the concepts of tolerance and diversity to young children.

I Will Chomp You! by Jory John tells the story of a monster who refuses to let the reader turn the pages of the story! He exclaims "I will chomp you, buster!"; "Now quit it!"; and "You've been officially warned!". At the end of the story, we find out that he doesn't want us to turn the pages because he has all of his cakes at the back of the book! This is a fun and interactive story where the children and you can chomp together and count the cakes and sweets at the back of the book.