Monster School by Kate Coombs ill Lee Gatlin

Coombs has applied her considerable talent for creating clever rhymes to the subject of monsters. In this collection, the monsters are students. Common school occurrences are given a slightly macabre twist: a science fair project created by Frankenstein’s grandson, baseball played in the graveyard, a student who constantly misplaces school supplies in addition to losing his body parts. ​These clever and entertaining riffs are monstrously fun. Verses include a variety of poetic forms and rhyme schemes. Most patterns are predictable, making it easy for students to sense the rhythm and rhyme within each stanza.  Gatlin captures the zany shenanigans happening at Monster School with full page illustrations. Muted autumn shades of grays, browns, and greens make the ghostly white faces and eyeballs pop out of each page

School is in Session

These poems are too delightful to keep to oneself. They beg to be shared. How about creating some puppets based on the monsters depicted throughout the pages? Gather up a handful of craft supplies, a copy of the book, and a fertile imagination. Viola! You have the beginnings of one monstrously good puppet show. There are endless possibilities for puppets: finger, sock, glove, stick, paper sack, or create something more inventive. The choice depends on what is on hand and the skill level of the puppet makers. A few of the craft supplies that I assembled: foam squares, felt, yarn, pom poms, chenille stems, goggly eyes, yarn, and even some corn husks. Add some wooden skewer sticks and hot glue gun.  Operation Frankenstein-esque Creature Lab was underway.

I looked for clues in the text to help create my puppets. The head of snakes featured in "Hair Care" was made with chenille stems, shaped by twisting them around a pencil. I used tiny green buttons for the snakes' heads. The purple hair mentioned in "Monster Mash" is a scrap of tulle, tied off at intervals. The hair for "Song of the Freckles" does not follow the image in the book because.... we had some fresh corn and the husks and silk were too funky to throw away. I twisted the damp husk slivers around a pencil and let them dry. They made the perfect curls for a monster girl.

We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

Penelope Rex is about to enter a new phase in her reptilian life. This young dinosaur is going to Kindergarten. She’s got a new backpack decorated with ponies and she carries her lunch: three hundred tuna sandwiches and a juice box. Naturally she is anxious. What will her classmates be like? Will she make new friends? Upon arrival she is surprised to learn that all her classmates are ... Children!  Penelope reacts immediately, swallowing all the delicious children in an enormous gulp. With furniture in disarray and a shoestring dangling from her mouth, Penelope appears to be somewhat chagrined by what she has just done.

More Picture Books! More Fun!

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle by Christina Uss

Sister Wanda discovers something unusual amid the  Mostly Silent Monastery construction clutter: a silent little girl with no name and no past.  Wearing a shirt emblazoned with the word BICYCLE, she is appropriately given the name Bicycle.  Our young heroine takes to the monastic life, spending her days intently listening and studying.  Her fortune changes the day that she accompanies the monks into town and discovers her namesake, a discarded bike. Scraping together all her loose change, Bicycle becomes the proud owner of the two-wheeler, christened Clunk. Sister Wanda is concerned because her young charge lacks youthful companions and enrolls Bicycle in the Friendship Factory’s camp. Determined to escape from the well-meaning intentions of Sister Wanda, Bicycle decides to bike from Washington D.C to San Francisco to meet her cycling hero Zbig.

Page Fright by Wade Bradford ill Mary Ann Fraser

​Bradford offers a refreshingly different riff on the time-honored classic tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and in the process breaks the fourth wall in a unique fashion. Characters move off script and step outside the book’s pages. At the outset, a charming but slightly self-absorbed young Goldilocks welcomes readers into the volume containing her story. Unfortunately Papa Bear, who inadvertently becomes the story's main character, becomes flustered and can't deliver his scripted lines.

Bears Times Three

Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems

Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst ill Simone Abel

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall

The Joy of Cookies: Cookie Monster's Guide to Life by Cookie Monster

​"Me the only Cookie Thief in this here town. So no steal cookies! And no steal book about cookies! Or terrible cookie curse fall upon you: Cookie forever taste like dust in mouth. Fate worse than diet."

The Creature of the Pines by Adam Gidwitz ill Hatem Aly

Created by Jesse Casey, Adam Gidwitz, and Chris Smith

Can we start with the ring? This ring is the finger adornment that dreams are made of.       Defende Fabulos Defend the Imaginary      Potege Mythica​ Protect the Mythical Just think of it. ​It is noble. It speaks of grandeur.  This is one amazingly cool ring. ​I understand that it may only be worn by members of the Unicorn Rescue Society. ​​Professor Fauna, sign me up now. Please.

It's Elliot Eisner's first day at a new school and already he's feeling more than a little uneasy. The day is starting with a field trip. Boarding a bus with students he doesn't know, supervised by a teacher he has never met, and heading into the Pine Barrens of New Jersey does not appear to be a promising start.  Elliot and his new-found friend Uchenna Devereaux soon learn that this field trip will not be like any other school excursion they have experienced.  A very strange-looking man, with hair that "stood up from his scalp like he was in the habit of kissing electric eels" introduces himself to the busload of students as Professor Fauna and promises them a dangerous expedition. "Indeed. Danger is the greatest teacher." Then it happens. Elliot and Uchenna encounter a small furry blue creature, shaped like deer, with claws on its two front  feet and red bat-like wings.  It is a Jersey Devil, resident of the Pine Barrens.  Not only do they see this mythical creature, they carefully hide it in Uchenna's backpack.

Stay Connected to the Society

The Unicorn Rescue Society Book Tour with Adam Gidwitz April 7 Book Launch 4-6 pm @ Brooklyn Pubic Library, Central Library, Dweck Center  April 19 California 4 PM @ Copperfield's Books, Petaluma  April 21 Cavalcade of Authors Washington State University, Tricities May 21 Chicago 4:30 PM @ The Book Stall, Winnetka June 28 Follett's Reading Con, Northern Illinois University Conference Center,Naperville July 13 BYU Books for Young Readers  @Provo City Library at Academy Square, Provo

Meet Mr.Gidwitz

Join the Unicorn Rescue Society

Get Ready for a New Adventure

Stuck in the Stone Age by Geoff Rodney ill by Hatem Aly

Have you ever read a book that was so funny that you found yourself laughing out loud? Have you ever found people looking at you and asking “What’s so funny?” When this happens, you look up from your book and realize that you are making a public scene. Immediately you attempt to stifle the guffaws bubbling up inside you. Eventually you acknowledge that you can’t control your laughter. It is time to decide: either put the book away until you are alone or just keep reading and ignore the curious stares. This precisely describes my experience as I laughed my way through Stuck in the Stone Age by Geoff Rodkey. Note: I kept reading.

​"You think we'll be okay?" "Definitely not." "We'll survive, though, right?" "Not a chance." "Not even if we brace ourselves?" "Did you take physics?" "Yeah, But I got an H in it." "What's an H?" "It's a little worse than a G."

Bonus Resources

Arnold the Brave by Gundi Herget ill Nikolai Renger

No one in the meadow seems to take him seriously. He does have one fan, Milo the mole, who cheers for Arnold from an underground hole. Things change the day that a wolf is seen on the horizon and appears to be heading toward the flock.

This imposing canine has the sheep terrified.  Whatever will they do?

They decide that hiding from the wolf is their best recourse.

But not our fearless Super Sheep. He is ready to take on any foe. He has no fear and boldly approaches the wolf. ​Little does he realize that he has a secret accomplice: Milo bravely puts into action his own scheme to thwart Mr. Wolf.

Extension Activities

Ball of Yarn

School Heroes

May 4, 2018 is School Lunch Hero Day. Visit this website for biographies of real life lunch staff members. Get downloadable flyers, cards, lesson plans, and other resources.

Pignic by Matt Phelan

Who can resist this cover? Mr Phelan gets it right, down to the curly pigtail flourishes on the title letters G and C.

When they reach their destination, problems arise.  An exploration leaves them stranded until an animal friend comes to the rescue.  When the kite cannot be launched, Phelan provides a brilliant solution that is a clever comic twist on a fairy tale trope. Suddenly the sky darkens. Rain drenches the piglets.  It appears that the day is a disaster. Not so. Phelan works his storytelling magic with the perfect solution. Soft water color images exude personality and are well-suited to the setting.  Illustrations give young readers visual cues needed to decode unfamiliar words.  Repetitive phrases, limited vocabulary, and large font centered within plenty of white space provide readers additional support.  Pignic is a delightful adventure for young and not-so-young readers.

Life is an Adventure

​The Royal Rabbits of London
by Santa Montefiore & Simon Sebag Montefiore
ill by Kate Hindley

Meet Shylo Tawny-Tail, a scrawny, shy little country rabbit who resides with his family in a burrow at the edge of the forest. Compelled to wear a patch over one eye to correct his vision, Shylo, also known as bunkin, is the object of his siblings' constant barrage of teasing and taunts. One day he spies a trio of "big, greasy, menacing rats" and listens in on their plot to infiltrate Buckingham Palace and take a compromising photo of the queen. Gathering up all his courage and aided by important information from a wise old rabbit recluse, Shylo sets off on a seemingly impossible task. His journey takes him to The Royal Rabbits of London, a select society of Rabbits of the Round Table, sworn to serve the Royal Family of England. Summoning courage he didn't realize he possessed, he manages to outwit the rats, escape the jaws of a pack of the Queen's beloved corgis, and save the honor of the Queen.

The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters:
​The Uncanny Express
by Kara LaReau  ill by Jen Hill

After a harrowing adventure aboard a pirate ship, one would think that Bland sisters Jaundice and Kale would settle into a quiet life in Dullsville, resuming their daily routine of tying knots, cleaning the bathroom and darning socks. Until...They receive a letter announcing that Aunt Shallot is coming to town and that they are to meet her at the Dullsville depot. They learn that this meeting will involve more than a simple hello. Much more. Our reluctant heroines find themselves passengers on the Uncanny Express, headed for Uncanny Valley. They have been conscripted to serve as magician's assistants to Magique. She is planning a comeback performance which she hopes will return her to her former glory as a great magician. But things take a strange turn when Magique goes missing. ​ ​