About the Author:
Jackie French Koller is the author of more than a dozen books for children, including the Mole & Shrew picture books. She lives in Westfield, Massachusetts.
Betsy Lewin has illustrated many books for children, including A Thousand Cousins by David L. Harrison, and Booby Hatch, a 1995 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, which she wrote. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
From Publishers Weekly:
Monsters, according to popular opinion, live under beds. Koller (the Mole and Shrew books), rather than deny these beasts' existence, questions their frightful intentions. In this mildly suspenseful tale, a boy named Howard tells his mother, "I heard [a monster] snurkling under my bed." Meanwhile, a young monster informs his mother that he hears a boy "sneezing on top of my bed." Left alone by their disbelieving parents, human and monster peek at each other and shriek in fear; only when their terror turns to tears do they dare a second, curious look. On the closing page, they trade places for a practical joke that's left to the reader's imagination: " 'Oh, Mommy,' they both called together. 'Mommy, come quick!' " Lewin (Somebody Catch My Homework) draws in loose, Quentin Blake-style gestures of pen and ink, and fills the negative space with watercolor washes of dusky blue and brown. She envisions Monster (who reads a scary comic titled Boy) as a warty green gargoyle with clawed toes, a boar's snout and tusks. Koller invents a monster vocabulary: Monster "whimples" when Howard whimpers, and "sniggles" when his friend giggles. The plot is predictable and even a bit shopworn, yet the energetic telling and agreeable illustrations could put some fears temporarily to rest. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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