Libby Hamilton

fantasy

Genre: Fantasy
Age: Elementary
Review: A guide book to monsters: how to spot them, how to avoid them, and an overall exploration. This book is fantasy because it is a guide to a made up thing.

Really impressive pop-up book. Big Ben leaps out of the page and chimes convincingly. There is a pirate ship that pops out 12" high with classic sailing music. Alanna loves it. It is so lovely I don't keep it on her regular boookshelf to stop it getting ruined, The words don't live up to the high standard of the illustrations. The story is a bit compressed and superficial, not as good as the Classic JM Barrie tale. It misses the humour and the depth of characterisation of the original.

The book is a "field guide" to monsters and would be the perfect book to read to little kids around halloween as a fun class activity. Then maybe have them create their own monster and make a fact page about it.