by Matt Cherry
Published by Firefly Press
We all need to add some extra fun to reading time sometimes & this is ideal. Thank goodness someone has finally produced a handbook - now we can all have a go at spotting monsters!
Edwin is 11 years old, has unusual hobbies, bright blue eyes & is between twelve & fifteen tins of beans high (standard height for a boy his age).
We loved the handbook Notes & quotes at the start of each chapter. Jumping right into the action: Edwin has a very unusual gift handed down to him by his grandpa: a Monster Spotter's Handbook.
Monsters seem to be all around in this story but they're not all scary or nasty. They could be anywhere or disguised as anything, even a bus stop! But there is a monster catcher out there somewhere hoping to collect all the monsters for himself & his Monster Museum.
Will the monsters be captured for the museum or saved by Edwin? Grandpa doesn't feature in the story very much but his guidance is definitely felt throughout Edwin's activities. It gets whacky & messy but such a great, bonkers adventure & 'ideas the size of elephant eggs' keep us wondering what on earth can happen next. A Frozen Yomp 'Monster of snow & ice' with long icicle teeth & a bad temper makes an angry but exciting appearance. Will he melt or be able to re-freeze himself in time to cause more mischief?
Will the world's first-ever Living Monster Museum really get filled up? How does Edwin end up in a cage? There's so much going on to keep your mind busy as you travel through the chapters. Can you even imagine what an Oober Beast looks like?
A great story that could spark a lot of discussions, home crafting & creative writing. We loved the fact that this is called Volume 1: Monster Soup & at the end tells us: Some stories never end, they just get better. It'll be exciting to see how this one continues.
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