Monster Beach - Softcover

Best known for their Junior Kroll collaborations, this mother-son duo venture to the seaside with a bright but hollow bauble of a picture book. Fishing on the beach, a boy spies a huge polka-dotted sea monster. The monster does not reappear until later in the day, when a set of unruly triplets seeks refuge in the water after snatching an old man's hat. The three are promptly swept out to sea, where they are rescued by the "monster"-which turns out to be an inflatable beach raft. Michael Paraskevas's dazzling acrylics mirror a spectrum of emotion, from the anticipatory glee of happy vacationers to the ominous scene where the boys are adrift and the monster, as yet unidentified, lurks menacingly. Unfortunately, the thin story doesn't rally the reader, and the verse is irritatingly ragged at times. A sappy ending overdoes it in lauding the monster "who brought us together and taught us to care,/ With respect for each other, in a place we all share." Despite the hot colors and pulsating energy of the illustrations, the venture is ultimately as limp as the deflated raft. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 4^-7. In this delightfully silly story, a young boy thinks he's imagining it when he keeps spotting a sea monster at the beach. Twice he sees the monster, but each time it disappears as quickly as it surfaced. Is the monster real? Well, sort of. It saves a trio of boys who swam out too far, delivers them safely to the beach, and then, quite literally, collapses. Still clueless, the children are saddened by the monster's "death" until the boy's grandfather applies a tire patch to its side and pumps it up. Exuberant illustrations that radiate with all the warmth and activity of a day at the beach succeed quite well in conveying the essence of the story for younger, prereading children. Nevertheless, the real charm of the book lies in the clever rhyming text that readers will take great pleasure in reading aloud over and over again. Lauren Peterson