Review: Monster Trucks by Joy Keller and Misa Saburi

Monster books are always popular around Halloween, but have you ever wondered what the monsters are doing with themselves the rest of the year?

9781627796170

$16.99

Well, they certainly aren't sitting around on their tails! Apparently, in addition to being proficient scarers, they are also quite good with heavy machinery. The witch trades her broom for a street sweeper, and the yeti, of course, mans a snow plow. The end result? They are far too tired at the end of the day to creep around your closet or under your bed!

Keller's rhymes make for a fun read-aloud any time of year, and Saburi's bright illustrations are full of fun details to make your kids chuckle. Monsters and machinery are a perfect combination for any children's book collection!

Reviews: Monsters!

I recently finished planning preschool programs for the rest of the year, and of course October would not be complete without a monster-themed story time. I am always happy to add fresh new stories to my repertoire, so let's see what the TBR pile has for us:

9780062349156

Getting George to sleep is a nightmare. But getting a monster to sleep? That's an adventure.

Now, this is cute! George can't sleep because there is a monster under his bed. The monster (who looks like he came off Sesame Street, actually) can't sleep, because...there's another monster under the floor! A successive chain of monsters, each slightly scarier-looking but never really awful, takes us to the center of the earth, where the final monster (a dragon) has an entirely different problem.

A quick, silly read, this one will easily fit into October's story time with no worries of causing actual nightmares. For an activity, we may create a scene with many layers and add monsters to it. So many fun ways to make monsters!

9780062345226

Ready, set, go! The monster truck race is on in this frightfully delightful picture book.  On a spooky speedway, Monster Trucks moan! Monster Trucks grumble! Monster Trucks groan!

Join Frankentruck, Zombie Truck, Ghost Truck, and more as they race to the finish line. But one of these trucks isn’t quite who you think.

Get your different reading voices ready for this one! If you get as far as Frankentruck, and you don't read "He's alive! HE'S ALIVE" like this, you are hereby stripped of all your librarian laurels:

You'll moan, you'll howl, and you'll have your young listeners on the edges of their seats to see who wins the race - will it be Frankentruck, Werewolf Truck, Zombie Truck, Ghost Truck, Vampire Truck, or...er...Little Blue Bus? Another non-scary crowd pleaser, we might have to create our own monster trucks and have a race around the room!

Finally, one I picked up at the recommendation of many other librarians:

9781419717314

You can't scare us, monster! Prompt your listeners to reach out and tickle the monster as you turn the pages, prompting him to lose his horns - which become the moon, his hands - which become bushes, and so forth, until nothing is left but a quiet bedtime scene. Lots to do here with seeing parts of a whole, conquering fears, looking at shapes in different ways, etc. Plus it's just plain fun! This one just screams to be made into a flannel board.

Mini-Reviews: New Nonfiction

Okay, so here's the deal. In order to get the children's room recarpeted, my desk has to be moved. In order for my desk to be moved, it has to be cleared off. In order for it to be cleared off, I have to catalog this pile of books. Before I can catalog them, I need to review them.

So, in the interest of turning this dingy aqua-covered floor a pretty dark blue, here are some quick impressions of a few nonfiction series that have come out this year!

     

9781467721202                                            9781467721226

Obvious cover and subject appeal. Inside graphics match the style and 'attitude', for lack of a better term, nicely. Each title starts off narrating an exciting event in that sport, then goes into the history, important names, rules, techniques, etc. Written around a fifth grade reading level, but fast-paced and engaging. Recommend highly, especially for reluctant readers who have the skills, just not the interest. Other titles in the series include Mud Truck Racing, Rally Car Racing, Rock Crawling, and Tractor Pulling.

     

9781467714372                                   9781467714358

Again, obvious cover and subject appeal, but do they also provide useful information?

Written around a 4th grade level, each chapter tells a different story of survival. While the tone definitely leans towards the sensational, there is a clear understanding of what each person did right or wrong, and what helped them to survive. Tips either throughout the book, or sometimes at the end, give good advice (you know, in case you ever meet an enraged hippo).

Other titles in the series include: Surviving Accidents and Crashes, Surviving in Cold Places, Surviving in Wild Waters, and Surviving Natural Disasters.

Thank-you to Lerner for the review copies!