Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A furry, bulbous monster is preparing a feast-how better to show you care?-and the ingredient list offers gross-out gags aplenty as it parodies soppy, feel-good picture books: "Toenails, fungus, beetle knees,/ vulture vomit, thick headcheese./ I love you more than toadstool jam-/ more than chunks of moldy ham!" With an item missing, the monster heads out to find it, but the interlude feels tacked onto a story that is at its best when it's reveling in the squicky details of everything that goes into the monster's creation, a sort of blobby, translucent green cake: "Happily we sit to eat./ Dinner smells like sweaty feet!" Armstrong-Ellis (Ten Creepy Monsters) fills the pages with slime and sludge, and careful readers will even spy monster-themed parodies of works from da Vinci, Cassatt, George Rodrigue, and other artists. Ages 4-8. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review
The "I love you more than..." litany takes a decidedly disgusting turn in this relationship. To cook a treat for Mom, a fuzzy pink monster seeks some interesting ingredients: "Putrid mucous, toadstool jam / warthog waste, and moldy ham." Bouncy rhyming couplets and silly illustrations that soften the grossness of "bloated ticks" and "nose goo drizzle" help make the package a little more palatable. (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
