What a cool freaking book. The endpapers alone (an array of vintage-looking monster stamps) sent a thrill up my spine. From the illustrator of the Time Warp Trio series and prolific poet Bobbi Katz, comes this book of poetry about monsters written from the perspective of a moster expert (or monsterologist). You have the usual fare here: ogres, trolls, dracula, etc. But you also get a bunch of creative creatures thrown in, too: the Compu-monster, the Verbivore, and the Surfing Sock-Eater.

Best for upper-elementary, I think. Not overly scary, mostly fun, with spectacular graphic design and an engaging premise. ( )

This highly engaging book holds a collection of poems written about and in some cases by some very scary monsters. We encounter all of the usual ones, like Dracula, The Yeti, The Crakken, The Lockness, trolls, and Gollum among others. We are introduced to some new ones too, such as the Compu-Monster, the Verbivore, and the Suds-Surfing Sock-Eater.

This book is written in rhyme as a fact book on various scary creatures like werewolves, ogres, trolls and Frankenstein's monster. The layout of the book is like that of a memoir or journal, with "articles" and "photos" cut and pasted and interspersed with the writing and the memoir writer's personal illustrations. The monster art is great and dark and the poetry is complex yet readable by a fourth or fifth grader. Meter and structure are tampered with.

I think this book may inspire a love of poetry among kids. Could be used as a humorous read aloud and in poetry writing and sharing. ( )

Theme: Monsters
Poetry, verse, rhymes devoted to monsters.
Fascinating collection of notes, facts, letters, and memorabilia. Great read. (4+)

Each entry in this encyclopedic-like collection of poems has a great deal of effort put into it. In the style of pictures, letters, notes, maps and diagrams, the illustrations in this book are amazing. Add that to the wise range of monsters covered in these poems, this book will be a fast favorite of poetry and moster lovers alike.