How to Catch a Monster (Christina Bollenbach, Scholastic)

Illustrator Christina Bollenbach has turned her hand to writing with How to Catch a Monster. Sweatband-wearing Lukas is visited by a large toothed monster every night. One day he decides he has had enough and makes plans to catch it. He devises a cookie-laden trap and waits. The monster (who in the daylight isn’t that scary at all) wolfs down the cookies and proceeds to make himself at home in Lukas’ house. They soon become best friends and playmates. There is great detail and life in the artwork of How to Catch a Monster but I found the wording a bit weak—especially with the use of the Americanised ‘cookies’ instead of ‘biscuits’. Also, as a mother, I had a slight issue with the monster and Lukas eating cookies at the end of every day—sharing or not! This is a tale of courage and imagination, which may help younger children deal with any fears they have of things that go bump (or crunch!) in the night.

Katie Haydon is a former assistant editor of Books+Publishing and a freelance reviewer

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Category: Reviews