We Are Monsters (Hello Reader)

Lovable, quirky monsters fill the pages of a silly rhyming story that helps children build their reading skills with such verses as "We are monsters/Monsters are cool!/We are monsters/Monsters rule!" Original.

Gr. 1, younger for reading aloud. More scruffy than scary, the wild-looking monsters in this book spend their time bullying their woodland neighbors and swiping cookies from windowsills. They're decidedly confident and self-consciously cool until bedtime, when they dread that children may be hiding under their beds. With only a few words on each page, the rhyming text will not overwhelm young readers. The colorful illustrations give the words a humorous tilt. After the story come several pages of activities (talking about being scared; finding the rhyming words, the right monster, and the plural words; and describing a new monster). The stiff, tear-out pages that divide into word-recognition flashcards will probably be torn out of library copies, but children will still enjoy the book. Carolyn Phelan