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Gila Monsters Meet You at the Airport
"I live at 165 East 95th Street, and I'm going to stay here forever." says the young hero firmly. After all, out West nobody plays baseball because they're too busy chasing buffaloes, and you have to ride a horse to school even if you don't know how, and you can't sit down because of the cactus. But his parents are moving West, and they say he has to go, too.
Once there, however, the boy doesn't meet the Gila monsters he expected. And on the ride to his new home (by taxi, not horse) he discovers the West is neither as different nor as bad as he'd imagined.
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Byron Barton share a keen sense of the ridiculous and a compassionate understanding of a child's anxieties. Together they have created a perceptive, exuberantly funny picture book that will have children in all parts of the country laughing away their own fears about new experiences.
Once there, however, the boy doesn't meet the Gila monsters he expected. And on the ride to his new home (by taxi, not horse) he discovers the West is neither as different nor as bad as he'd imagined.
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Byron Barton share a keen sense of the ridiculous and a compassionate understanding of a child's anxieties. Together they have created a perceptive, exuberantly funny picture book that will have children in all parts of the country laughing away their own fears about new experiences.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
5 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
About the author
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
253 books117 followersMarjorie Weinman Sharmat was an American children's writer. She wrote more than 130 books for children and teens and her books have been translated into several languages. They have won awards including Book of the Year by the Library of Congress or have become selections by the Literary Guild.
Perhaps Sharmat's most popular work features the child detective Nate the Great. He was inspired by and named after her father, who lived to see the first Nate book published. One story, Nate the Great Goes Undercover, was adapted as a made-for-TV movie that won the Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival Award. Sharmat's husband Mitchell Sharmat expanded Nate's storyline by creating Olivia Sharp, his cousin and fellow detective. Husband and wife wrote four Olivia Sharp books published 1989 to 1991. During the 1990s, their son Craig Sharmat (then in his thirties) wrote three Nate books with his mother. In the late 2010s, their other son Andrew Sharmat co-wrote the last two Nate books written while Marjorie Weinman Sharmat was alive. With Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's passing in 2019 Andrew has continued writing the series with Nate the Great and the Earth Day Robot (2021).
In the mid-1980s Sharmat wrote three books published in 1984 and 1985 under the pseudonym Wendy Andrews.
Sharmat also wrote the Sorority Sisters series, eight short novels published in 1986 and 1987. They are romantic fiction with a sense of humor. They are set in a California public high school (day school for ages 14 to 18, approximately).
Perhaps Sharmat's most popular work features the child detective Nate the Great. He was inspired by and named after her father, who lived to see the first Nate book published. One story, Nate the Great Goes Undercover, was adapted as a made-for-TV movie that won the Los Angeles International Children's Film Festival Award. Sharmat's husband Mitchell Sharmat expanded Nate's storyline by creating Olivia Sharp, his cousin and fellow detective. Husband and wife wrote four Olivia Sharp books published 1989 to 1991. During the 1990s, their son Craig Sharmat (then in his thirties) wrote three Nate books with his mother. In the late 2010s, their other son Andrew Sharmat co-wrote the last two Nate books written while Marjorie Weinman Sharmat was alive. With Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's passing in 2019 Andrew has continued writing the series with Nate the Great and the Earth Day Robot (2021).
In the mid-1980s Sharmat wrote three books published in 1984 and 1985 under the pseudonym Wendy Andrews.
Sharmat also wrote the Sorority Sisters series, eight short novels published in 1986 and 1987. They are romantic fiction with a sense of humor. They are set in a California public high school (day school for ages 14 to 18, approximately).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
May 6, 2014
I like it because it's funny and has gila monsters. They don't really meet you at the airport, I know that because I also moved from the east to the west. I like friends and so I liked reading about how Seymour and his friend, who like to eat salami together. This book is about friendship and its message is "don't be afraid when you move to a new place to live!" - Eva
May 3, 2017
This book was introduced to me by Reading Rainbow in my childhood. It was one of my favorite Reading Rainbow episodes. I also devoured the book a few times off screen back then, but I realized I've never written a review for it. So today I re-visited this old friend.
A boy is moving with his family from the East (which looks like New York City) out West. At first the boy is in denial about moving. He starts listing his worries and sharing his vision for what life will be like out West. (Much of which is hilariously ridiculous, though very believable to be concerns about a kid in a new place.) When he arrives out West, he meets a kid moving East. This kid shares his fears about how horrible life will be in the big city out East. Like our main character, much of what he fears is hilariously ridiculous. Thanks to that encounter and the evidence of his own eyes, our boy finds that many of his worries were not founded on facts, that there's much familiar, and maybe he can enjoy this new place too.
This is a great read for anyone preparing for or recovering from a move. It's also a good book about perspective, point of view, and a jumping off point to talk about the worries before a new experience. Though the book is now 37 years old, it's relevance and appeal hasn't changed at all.
A boy is moving with his family from the East (which looks like New York City) out West. At first the boy is in denial about moving. He starts listing his worries and sharing his vision for what life will be like out West. (Much of which is hilariously ridiculous, though very believable to be concerns about a kid in a new place.) When he arrives out West, he meets a kid moving East. This kid shares his fears about how horrible life will be in the big city out East. Like our main character, much of what he fears is hilariously ridiculous. Thanks to that encounter and the evidence of his own eyes, our boy finds that many of his worries were not founded on facts, that there's much familiar, and maybe he can enjoy this new place too.
This is a great read for anyone preparing for or recovering from a move. It's also a good book about perspective, point of view, and a jumping off point to talk about the worries before a new experience. Though the book is now 37 years old, it's relevance and appeal hasn't changed at all.
May 10, 2024
reading rainbow project in Children's Books group - avl at OKC metro library system
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The funniest thing about it is that there's a kernel of truth. I've lived in most regions of the country, and, yes, the stereotypes have a basis in fact. The metropolitan areas of the East are so crowded that life is stressful, bad for heart and asthma. There are very few places to sit in the Southwest and very few plants it's safe to touch. Regional foods are still best enjoyed in their original habitats.
But, most people can adapt. Or at least consider the years in the new place as an adventure.
I really like the last bit, in which our hero plans a letter to Seymour. Funny.
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The funniest thing about it is that there's a kernel of truth. I've lived in most regions of the country, and, yes, the stereotypes have a basis in fact. The metropolitan areas of the East are so crowded that life is stressful, bad for heart and asthma. There are very few places to sit in the Southwest and very few plants it's safe to touch. Regional foods are still best enjoyed in their original habitats.
But, most people can adapt. Or at least consider the years in the new place as an adventure.
I really like the last bit, in which our hero plans a letter to Seymour. Funny.
April 2, 2015
A boy's family is moving away from New York City on the East coast of the U.S.A. to out west. The boy is less than thrilled about this, and shares all the things he's heard about the West, which causes him to dread the change even more. However, a chance encounter helps him have a better outlook on the move.
This is a book I remember seeing on Reading Rainbow ages ago, and loving when I was a kid, though I didn't remember a lot of the story. It does hold up for re-reading and I think the fears expressed in changing homes will still give readers a laugh and a lesson.
No content issues.
August 30, 2010
This is a cute book that has a moral, "Don't believe everything you hear; find out for yourself before you judge it.". It's about a boy who had to move from the east, New York to way out west and he wasn't looking forward to it at all. He was afraid of what he had heard about the west. While he was at the airport, he met a boy from out west who had to move to New York. This boy heard terrible things about New York. This is a good read aloud and reread. It could also be a good witing prompt idea.
October 6, 2013
Interest Level: Ages K-5
Reading Level: Ages 3 to up
Lexile Reading Level: AD560L
Delicately illustrated to catch young audience's attention. Perfect to create cultural awareness (within national cultures and to reduce anxiety when moving to a new place. Easy and fun wording, understandable even by the youngest kids.
Reading Level: Ages 3 to up
Lexile Reading Level: AD560L
Delicately illustrated to catch young audience's attention. Perfect to create cultural awareness (within national cultures and to reduce anxiety when moving to a new place. Easy and fun wording, understandable even by the youngest kids.
May 2, 2024
Featured in the early 1980s on Reading Rainbow, this book has stayed in my mind and heart for decades. I'm really sad that there is only one copy in our entire library system -- and that is from one of the small town libraries, at that. If your children are going through a move to another area, or you want to explain the dangers of stereotyping, please don't ignore this gem of a book! It is dated in some ways -- now we have so many television programs, internet sites, etc. that help connect children with the wider world so one would hope that stereotypes would be less rampant than when the boy in this story moved from New York City to Texas with his family in 1980. However, sadly, the stereotypes still abound. This story is so important!
Our young narrator is not thrilled to leave his apartment in NYC and move "Out West" to Texas. Out West, everyone wears cowboy hats and bandanas and eats beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Out West, you have to watch out for buffalo stampedes, cactus, and buzzards. And, of course, Gila monsters meet you at the airport.
When the little boy arrives at the airport, he sees a kid about his age who is moving East. "Great!" says our narrator. "Great?" replies the other kid, "What's so great about it? Don't you know that the streets are full of gangsters? They all wear flowers in their lapels so they look honest, but they zoom around in big cars with screeching breaks and you have to jump out of the way! In the East, it snows and blows all the time, except for five minutes when it's spring and summer. [...] and alligators live in the sewers and sometimes [they] get out and wait for you at the airport."
I absolutely love how this shows that stereotypes can run both ways! Ignorance and assumptions are everywhere. Of course, after our narrator leaves the airport he realizes that Texas isn't quite like what he'd imagined. They pass by a restaurant that looks just like the one in his old neighborhood and kids playing baseball (not run out of the diamond by stampeding buffalo, after all!) There is a horse by his neighborhood, and it looks like a really cool horse, but the kids in his neighborhood are riding bikes. In the end, we see him hanging up his old hat on a cactus and putting on a cowboy hat to embrace his new home.
I will say the illustrations aren't my absolute favorite style, but they work here, I think. This book was also really memorable for my sister. She saw my library copy out when she visited earlier this week and gasped. "This is why I wanted to visit Texas when I was a kid!" she exclaimed. My kids thought the book was a lot of fun. You can see the book on RR feature here:
https://idahoptv.pbslearningmedia.org...
Our young narrator is not thrilled to leave his apartment in NYC and move "Out West" to Texas. Out West, everyone wears cowboy hats and bandanas and eats beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Out West, you have to watch out for buffalo stampedes, cactus, and buzzards. And, of course, Gila monsters meet you at the airport.
When the little boy arrives at the airport, he sees a kid about his age who is moving East. "Great!" says our narrator. "Great?" replies the other kid, "What's so great about it? Don't you know that the streets are full of gangsters? They all wear flowers in their lapels so they look honest, but they zoom around in big cars with screeching breaks and you have to jump out of the way! In the East, it snows and blows all the time, except for five minutes when it's spring and summer. [...] and alligators live in the sewers and sometimes [they] get out and wait for you at the airport."
I absolutely love how this shows that stereotypes can run both ways! Ignorance and assumptions are everywhere. Of course, after our narrator leaves the airport he realizes that Texas isn't quite like what he'd imagined. They pass by a restaurant that looks just like the one in his old neighborhood and kids playing baseball (not run out of the diamond by stampeding buffalo, after all!) There is a horse by his neighborhood, and it looks like a really cool horse, but the kids in his neighborhood are riding bikes. In the end, we see him hanging up his old hat on a cactus and putting on a cowboy hat to embrace his new home.
I will say the illustrations aren't my absolute favorite style, but they work here, I think. This book was also really memorable for my sister. She saw my library copy out when she visited earlier this week and gasped. "This is why I wanted to visit Texas when I was a kid!" she exclaimed. My kids thought the book was a lot of fun. You can see the book on RR feature here:
https://idahoptv.pbslearningmedia.org...
March 17, 2020
Being a kid that moved from the East coast to the West coast, this story connects with me on a deep level. I understand the main character's frustration with moving and how it can be overwhelming moving to a completely different place. I feel the illustrations of this book are very abstract yet make sense for the abstractness of the main character's depiction of what the West is supposed to look like. Very vibrant colors are used to keep the reader attracted and the dialogue is short and effective. The ease of dialogue allows a reader to be able to follow along and understand what the author is trying to convey. The book is also quite humorous which allows the reader to enjoy the humor and enables them to understand it. It also not too long of a story and has a simple plot, not causing the reader to think about the plot but to think about how the main character feels or even how they would feel moving to a place they do not know very well. I enjoyed this book as a child and reading it as an adult makes me enjoy it even more!
September 11, 2025
This is such a funny book! I love it! Absolutely we all ride horses to school "Out West". And we can't sit down for all the cacti! Hilarious. And then our main character meets a kid who is moving west to east, and he is sure there will be gangsters and alligators everywhere in NYC.
I would be pushing for a reprint of this, if not for one page. I'm reading this on Sep. 10. And I read this text about NYC: "You have to live on the 50th floor. Airplanes fly through your bedroom, and you've got to duck fast," and the picture shows this. Ouch. Not so ridiculous now. This feels really different in 2025 than it did in 1980. I felt I should mention it since I didn't see any other reviews that did. Could be triggering for people from NYC.
It would be great if they could change that page and reprint it. Or maybe do a whole redo with a new illustrator and change that text.
I would be pushing for a reprint of this, if not for one page. I'm reading this on Sep. 10. And I read this text about NYC: "You have to live on the 50th floor. Airplanes fly through your bedroom, and you've got to duck fast," and the picture shows this. Ouch. Not so ridiculous now. This feels really different in 2025 than it did in 1980. I felt I should mention it since I didn't see any other reviews that did. Could be triggering for people from NYC.
It would be great if they could change that page and reprint it. Or maybe do a whole redo with a new illustrator and change that text.
September 10, 2019
I didn't like the book because it was not my kind of book. I like books that are like about brave knights or about building something (like Rosie Revere, Engineer). I did like that someone was moving to somewhere else and someone was moving to somewhere else, and they told him something like "the gila monsters meet you at the airport or the crocodiles peer up from those cages you see, and sometimes get out."
August 10, 2018
The young boy narrating the story is about to move from New York City to the west coast. He has all kinds of preconceived notions about what it will be like “out west” - cactus everywhere you look, everyone wears chaps and bandannas and everyone grows up to be a sheriff. Then he meets a boy at the airport who is heading east with his own ideas of what the east will be like.
Good message about forming an opinion based on inaccurate information.
Good message about forming an opinion based on inaccurate information.
January 30, 2020
This is one of my preschooler's favorite books.
Read aloud, it never fails to provoke giggles and smiles: Out West it takes fifteen minutes just to say hello. Like this: H-O-W-W-W-D-Y, P-A-A-A-R-D-N-E-R. But the humor is in the service of the book's enduring message, one of value to all readers, whether or not big moves are on the horizon. Sharmat nails the voice of her narrator, and Barton's illustrations play well with the text.
Read aloud, it never fails to provoke giggles and smiles: Out West it takes fifteen minutes just to say hello. Like this: H-O-W-W-W-D-Y, P-A-A-A-R-D-N-E-R. But the humor is in the service of the book's enduring message, one of value to all readers, whether or not big moves are on the horizon. Sharmat nails the voice of her narrator, and Barton's illustrations play well with the text.
September 25, 2020
This was adorable and so funny! The illustrations were great and I know I would have loved this as a kid. One thing I found interesting is that there were chapters, even though this book is written for kids under the age of reading books long enough to have chapters. Might be a good way to introduce them to the concept?
February 17, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. A young man moves from NYC to the West. He's heard a lot about what it's like and how the people are there. On the way, he meets a young man moving from the West to NYC, and he shares what he's heard about the big city. It's a good book for helping us to look at assumptions we make about people and places and that it's okay to change our minds and opinions.
September 29, 2025
Cute take on moving cross-country. Not much of a twist. But the writing is clever. Still. I'm out west and I'm from back east. And I just took a trip to the southwest. And I might have liked to have seen a Gila Monster at an airport or not. When I moved cross-country I was more worry about snow on the highway and wildfires and not standing on logs at the beach.
October 13, 2020
Reading Rainbow selection. Picture book about moving from the East Coast to the "wild West". Funny story about moving and learning not to believer everything you hear about a new place! Appeals to preschoolers and K-5 group.
December 5, 2018
Rumors about moving from NYC to the 'wild' west.
June 25, 2019
I didn't really enjoy this one. I found it kind of weird and didn't make sense to me.
August 23, 2019
We’ve done a lot of moving and can relate to these kids. Funny book.
May 1, 2020
This was an amazing book for my kids! They were scared of moving but they got over it with this book, great for kids and has a great lesson!!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 28, 2021
Such an odd title but the book made me laugh about the false ideas the main character had about moving West.
July 4, 2021
Great funny kids book on moving
September 6, 2021
Have I told you about our new favorite book?
March 30, 2023
A good story to introduce many topics to children.
March 2, 2025
An AZ classic and even better now that I'm a partial New Yorker???
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March 27, 2025This book was featured in the original 1981 pilot episode for Reading Rainbow
April 29, 2025
I like the art. Okay story about expectations and assumptions.
September 29, 2025
A somewhat reasonable story about the fears of moving.
September 25, 2023
Super fun moral-as-surrealism thing. Follows the same arc as Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day with a different message. Apt for thinking about flyover country or Coastal Liberals or those cities where hipster's live or all those other glorious places in the USA.
September 1, 2011
This book is about misconceptions people have about people, places, and culture. I could relate with the book from the perspective of reader response theory questions.I connected to the story because I moved to Arizona from California. Although I knew and I had visited Arizona many years ago, I still had to encounter some of the misconceptions about this state. One of them was there are no trees in Arizona only cacti.
At the begining of my reading, this book made me feel uncomfortable because it is stereotyping the West. I find stereotyping bothersom.I believe when people have misconceptions, it shows they are in a way ignorant and they need to read more to have a more acurret picture of people, culture, places, etc, etc.
The story is told through the boy's eyes and that might appeal to children.On the other hand, children have to have maturity and backgound information about geography, history, and culture to really grasp the message of the story.
This piece of children's literature is suppouse to be humorous, but to me it was not humorous. To be honest, I did not laugh reading the story. However, when I re-read the book,I found things that might be funny for a third grade student for example when the boy, in his imagination, is about to seat in a cactus or when the boy pictures in his mind that a bunch of Gila monsters are going to be waiting for him at the airport.
Overall, it is a good story but I go back and forth between 3 and 4 stars. I could consider reading and using the story to a third to fifth grade level class.
Maria Green
At the begining of my reading, this book made me feel uncomfortable because it is stereotyping the West. I find stereotyping bothersom.I believe when people have misconceptions, it shows they are in a way ignorant and they need to read more to have a more acurret picture of people, culture, places, etc, etc.
The story is told through the boy's eyes and that might appeal to children.On the other hand, children have to have maturity and backgound information about geography, history, and culture to really grasp the message of the story.
This piece of children's literature is suppouse to be humorous, but to me it was not humorous. To be honest, I did not laugh reading the story. However, when I re-read the book,I found things that might be funny for a third grade student for example when the boy, in his imagination, is about to seat in a cactus or when the boy pictures in his mind that a bunch of Gila monsters are going to be waiting for him at the airport.
Overall, it is a good story but I go back and forth between 3 and 4 stars. I could consider reading and using the story to a third to fifth grade level class.
Maria Green
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews