Title: Goodnight, Little Monster
Author: Helen Ketteman
Illustrator: Bonnie Lieck
Genre: Picture Book
Age: Young children
Part of a Series?: Yes
*I downloaded this book as part of my son’s monthly Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Summary:
This book is a little monster and his mother as they go through the many steps of Little Monster’s bedtime routine. It covers a few monster-specific items, like howling at the moon, and some that will be more familiar to the child, such as taking a bath.
The Nitty Gritty:
This book is pretty cute over all, and I love the monster elements that they added into the bedtime routine. There’s some great rhyming in the book, which reads more like an illustrated poem than prose, but there are also a few spots where the rhythm becomes a little clunkier. The illustrations are great, with rich colors and an amazing amount of texture, but tend towards the creepy and gross side of things, with bugs, bats, and dead plants featured in the majority of them. This isn’t an issue for the most part, but if you have a kid more like my daughter (who decides to be scared every now and then), this could turn the child off of this book.
The monster characters, and the thoroughly “monster-ized” nature of the illustrations, makes me believe that this book will draw in more boys, although I would not be surprised to find girls drawn to this book as well. I do believe that any child could enjoy this book. I would recommend parent’s taking their own child’s particular preferences into account before purchasing this book, however.
My son has read this once so far, and has asked me to leave it on the Kindle so that he can read it again in the future. He hasn’t been eager to read it again, however, and it was a more difficult read for him at the time (about six months ago). I was surprised a couple nights later, though, when he told my mother all about it.
Goodread’s Rating: 4.24 Stars (430 Ratings)
Amazon’s Rating: 4.6 Stars (603 Reviews)
My Son’s Rating: 10,000 Stars (out of 5)
I like it because the monster howls and it’s like half wolf, half bunny, half of an animal. And also I like it because the monster, it helps me learn about when I have to go to bed I will know what to do when my parents aren’t here, when I’m a big kid.
My Daughter’s Rating: N/A
I don’t want to read it because I don’t like monsters.
My Rating: 3 Stars
While it was cute and I loved the creativity and commitment to carrying the monster theme throughout the poetry and illustrations, I was disappointed by my son’s luke-warm reaction to it and feel that this is not an “every-kid” sort of book. While there is nothing truly wrong with it, it wasn’t the home run I was hoping for.
Busy Busy Bookwyrm 