Monday 21 July 2014

Kicking off "Reading Rocks!" blog tour week with Little Tiger Press. "Harry and the Monster" by Sue Mongredien and Nick East


Harry and the Monster

Written by Sue Mongredien

Illustrated by Nick East

Published by Little Tiger Press

You know how much we love monster books, right? You know how much Charlotte always looks for the darkly-tinged bedtime stories (while mummy and I try desperately to steer her away from anything that will give her nightmares)? Well how about a book that, rather cleverly, works in two ways. On the one hand it does feature one mean and nasty monster who keeps invading poor Harry's lovely dreams at night, causing Harry to wake up with a squeak...

Harry and the Monster. Someone ought to give that monster a real telling off!

On the other hand it's actually a tale that should go some way to assuring kids that dreams are harmless, and the biggest scariest monster that pops into your imagination and runs gleefully around causing havoc and chaos is actually quite scared of something too.

Like all great children's picture books, there's a twist in this tale and Sue keeps us hanging on till quite near the end when the twist is revealed. Alongside Nick's fabulous art (with lots of truly gorgeous detail and such a meany monster!) this is an immensely satisfying book that ticked our 'monster book' boxes good and proper (and don't forget to look elsewhere on the blog today as we feature a mini interview with Sue and Nick, and our all time top-ten monster book recommendations!)

The evolution of a monster! Nick East's fantastic character drawings for "The Monster"


"Harry and the Monster" is available from Little Tiger Press. Please do join in with their "Reading Rocks" Campaign for the summer and keep kids reading (and loving doing so, of course!)

Charlotte's best bit: So what is it that a monster is scared of? Charlotte LOVED the twist reveal. So awesome!

Daddy's Favourite bit: We do love a good monster yarn and we particularly do love a meany monster (as long as they see the error of their ways!). A corking good read!

(Kindly sent to us for review as part of the awesome "Reading Rocks!" summer campaign by Little Tiger Press)