Monster Museum

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihJnLV2FXE9WX4f1oJanDhPrO6BljCCmQ5WedgSb5KpWpOZN4SjN8a3qy7w50L7xAH9bEh_NIYhHIB0fSAP7rTSczJAB5E44DCZyENXAB0GHGiyztJsq0SpGzDYnVh6bolQhezwg7pGZo/s1600/745648.jpg

Bibliography:

Singer, Marilyn. 2001. MONSTER MUSEUM. Ill. by Gris Grimly. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 078680520

Summary:

Children go into the Monster Museum and explore nineteen horrifyingly exciting creatures it has to behold.  While exploring, they have a frightenly great time.  In the end, monsters bid them farewell, and the children that were kind just may have found they have a new friend.

Critical Analysis:

Marilyn Singer has created a comically spooky compilation of twenty-one rhyming monster themed poems.  In this compilation, the reader gets acquainted with what the museum has to offer its guests in the first poem, Monster Museum. Then readers read on to poetically experience such inhabitants as Count Dracula, The Werewolf, The Mummy, Bigfoot, Medusa, and many more.  Bigfoot offers an entertaining account of his “awesome” wedding day to Misses Yeti, where they were “tossing snowballs like confetti.”  To make this book even more entertaining than it already is are its watercolor illustrations by Gris Grimly that contribute to furthering the spine-tingling hilarity of each poem.  Grimly does a nice job of giving each monster a scary, but yet comical expression.  The visiting kids each have a look as if thinking, “What in the world have I gotten myself into?”  In the end, the “brave souls” are "bid farewell," and then Singer uses a play on words to title the “Glo-Scary.”  The “Glo-scary" allows readers to peruse and also learn about each horrifying character inhabiting the museum.  This monster themed compilation is appropriately entertaining for elementary aged children.

Review Excerpts:

“Among the season's best creature features.” -Publishers Weekly

“Singer’s poems are lively and humorous (if not great literature), and they impart quite a bit of information about various famous monsters.” -Kirkus Reviews

"This fresh, witty book will be popular for not-so-scary storytimes, as well as independent reading.” -School Library Journal

Connections:

-Read other works written by Marilyn Singer:

Mirror Mirror

Shoe Bop!

Monday on the Mississippi

The Painted Fan

The Golden Heart of Winter

The Pickle Plan

Archer Armadillo’s Secret Plan

Big Wheel

Charmed

-Read this compilation during a monster themed narrative writing unit

-Read during the month of October

-Write original monster or spooky themed poetry