The Not-So-Scary Monster

How do you help children over their fear of monsters? When I was growing up, there was one under my bed, waiting for my feet to approach so that it could grab my ankles and pull me under the bed. No matter what my parents said, when I entered my bedroom, I would take a huge leap from the doorway and onto my bed in such a way that the monsters never managed to grab me. I was almost a teenager when my bed was replaced with a waterbed which had pullout drawers underneath that reached the floor. There was no room for monsters anymore, and I had no more monster nightmares. The Not-So-Scary Monster is a way to engage with your child’s fear of monsters without having to replace the furniture. The theme of the book is found on the copyright page: “You have the courage within you to scare away your own fears.”

Bigtooth is the monster who terrifies all children. He visits them in their homes at night and causes screams of terror to break the evening’s silence: Aaaah! Aaiieee! Aaaah! He’s proud of his ability to cause terror in every household. That is, until he moves on to the next village – Bravetown.

In Bravetown, children are…well…brave. When he sneaks into their houses and tiptoes down the shadowy hallways into the bedroom, he is filled with the thrilling anticipation of inflicting fear. That’s before one child karate kicks him and another gives his head and hair a do-over with ponytails and lipstick. He flees both houses in confusion with heart pounding. With trepidation, he stares at other houses and wonders about what the abnormal children will do to him next: fire hockey pucks at him or feed him with the game of “Here comes the airplane”? Finally, Bigtooth concludes that the children in this town ARE the monsters. He loses heart, his self-esteem drops, and he runs away from Bravetown, convinced that he isn’t cut out for scaring children anymore.

The text is simple and easy to understand for the target audience. It has many opportunities for language development with idioms such as “frozen with surprise” and similes such as “[children] always smell like crayons and old teddy bears.” Children will encounter new vocabulary words such as hackles, glistening, gnashing and hackles. Discussions around these new ideas will spur growth in language skills which are needed for comprehending texts at school in the future.

The illustrations in The Not-So-Scary Monster are cartoon-like in appearance and beautifully drawn. They include great details – especially of the monster. The colours are bright and attractive during the day and dark and creepy at night. The expressions on the faces and body language of Bigtooth and on the children are excellent for engaging children in identifying the feelings of the character and making inferences as to why they are feeling the way they are. This is an important skill for young children to learn and the illustrations give many opportunities for rich discussion around this topic.