Keith Graves

This review originally posted at The Children's Book and Media Review

Master Edgar Dreadbury thinks that Halloween is boring. Choosing a costume is a chore. Dressing up as a pirate, mummy, clown, or other things doesn't please him. He wanted to be something terrifying. When he goes to a different shop to find a costume, he puts a dime into a big, grimy machine called the MONSTERATOR. Edgar was MONSTERATED, turning him into something unrecognizable and terrifying everyone from squirrels to girls. When he’s decided that he’s done with scaring people on Halloween, he doesn’t know how to turn back into a human. In the end, he decides that staying as a monster is how he wants to be.

Even though the book is about monsters and doesn’t have a particularly happy ending, the illustrations are surprisingly cute. Even in his monster form, Edgar is more adorable than terrifying, making sure that small children who love Halloween won’t be spooked by this book. The book has a nice rhyme scheme for people to read aloud. In the back of the book, there are pages of flaps so that children can MONSTERATE Edgar on their own. The book has 625 monsters for children to find. The book doesn’t teach any lessons, but the interactive nature may help small children be excited about Halloween and reading.… (más)