Monstrous Reading for Halloween

Looking for some monster stories for Halloween? Nothing too scary - just something in keeping with the season? How about this pair of books written by Danny Schnitzlein?

The Monster Who Did my Math begins with a young boy who has "...some kind of allergic reaction to multiplication... addition... subtraction." Also long division (the bane of my elementary school career) - and when he wishes for his homework to be done, voila! A monster appears who promises to do his homework for him. All is well and good until the teacher, impressed by his A+ answers, asks him to go up to the board and show how to work out a problem. He can't. When he gets home, he yells at the monster who points to the little print in the contract where, in paragraph seven of clause 93 it says: If you don't learn anything, do not blame me!

Schnitzlein's earlier book, The Monster Who Ate My Peas features a similar deal with a monster: you do the work, I pay a price. In that book the kid won't eat his peas. A monster appears who will eat the peas for a price: the kid's soccer ball.

This veggie-eating monster has hair that looks like spinach, a broccoli-green body, eyeballs that look like brussels sprouts, a squash nose, liver-like lips.... all the things kids everywhere don't like to see on their dinner plate. No matter, this monster eats it all. For a price.

If you need another monster book, grab a copy of  Tara Lazar's The Monstore - where one can buy a monster to deal with problems such as pesky sisters. But there's a catch - isn't there always when dealing with monsters? You can read a full review and interview with Tara here.

Happy Halloween Reading!


The Monster Who Did my Math and The Monster Who ate my Peas are both published by Peachtree Publisher. The Monstore is published by Aladdin. Review copies from the publishers.