Read This: When a Monster is Born

Keeping with Halloween inspired books, I wanted to share another monster book with you that we love--When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor and illustrated by Nick Sharratt.   I think I bought this book for Beeper a couple of years ago when he was in the hospital having his tonsils removed and tubes put in his ears.  Of the stack of books I bought for him to keep him entertained, this was the one he most wanted to read over and over together--side by side in the hospital bed while he ate popsicles.  All that aside, let me tell you a bit about the book...

This book tells the story of a monster's life from birth through a variety of possibilities and paths a monster can choose to go, each with its own silly and beastly outcome.

 For instance, when a monster finally gets to school, it can either be an exemplary student and become the first monster to join the basketball team, or it could eat the principal.  Either option is entirely viable when you are a green hairy monster, I suppose.

And so you get to the follow the monster through his life, from birth to hiding under your bed to school and out into the world where he can choose to do things like dance the boogie-woogie or stay in a fancy hotel or fall in love with a kitchen girl and get married...

...and all the while you learn about what happens when the monster chooses one course over another, eventually all coming full circle in the end.  It is a clever book, with colorful and happy illustrations  (even when the monster is eating the principal) that pop from the black backgrounds.   Full of unexpected possibilities and outcomes, there are few things that happen in a monster's life that are entirely predictable (other than showing up under your bed, of course), which is part of the charm of this monster book that is more funny than frightening.