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Let's Read! Monsters: An Owner's Guide
Have you ever wanted your own pet monster? This guide contains all you need to know about assembling your very own monstrously marvellous companion! The complete story and original illustrations of Monsters: An Owner's Guide by Jonathan Emmett and Mark Oliver have been specially redesigned into a smaller early reader format. This new version offers children a natural next step on from picture books to support them as they grow in reading confidence.
- GenresChildrensPicture Books
32 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2010
About the author
Jonathan Emmett
155 books58 followersJonathan Emmett was born in Leicestershire in 1965, the son of a factory fitter and a primary school teacher.
Jonathan loved books from an early age and some of his earliest memories are of visiting his local library. The picture books that he borrowed then, including Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss and Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson have had a great influence on the picture books that he now writes.
It was while Jonathan was at college, studying architecture, that he first started developing his own illustrated texts, illustrating poems and lyrics that he’d written. Pleased with the results, he found himself spending more and more time on writing and illustration. Although he qualified as an architect, he found the job unsatisfying and began pursuing a career in children's books in his spare time, eventually going full-time in 1995, a few months before his thirtieth birthday.
As well as writing picture books such as Bringing Down the Moon, Someone Bigger, Pigs Might Fly and Ruby Flew Too, Jonathan also writes and paper-engineers pop-up books. His books have won several awards including the Red House Children’s Book Award “Book for Younger Children” for Pigs Might Fly and the Kiekeboekprijs for Bringing Down the Moon.
He now lives in Nottingham with his wife, Rachel, and children, Max and Laura.
You can visit Jonathan’s website atjonathanemmett.com
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 14, 2019
For everyone:
• Small children will enjoy the delightful monsters and the useless adults.
• Useless adults will relate to the frustration of bad design, inadequate instructions, and impatient small children.
• Technical writers (me) will appreciate a brilliant demonstration of what we do, and why our skills are needed.
Image: Assembling your Monster
Just like real technical documentation, the book includes:
• Delivery note
• Labels and warnings on packaging (ignored)
• Inventory of contents - labelled
• Exploded diagrams and sequential steps for assembly
• Distinguishing features of different models
• Switching on
• Usage instructions
• Maintenance
• Dos and don’ts
• Safety notes (near the end!)
• Troubleshooting
• Lifetime guarantee (whose - yours or the monster’s?)
Image: Danger is shown, but downplayed, at the corner of a page
Like all good instructions, the author and illustrator know their audience and appreciate the importance of context. It’s task-oriented, showing expected - and unexpected - results.
Image: Dos and Don’ts
Technical writing is not just typing!
Aged 12, my kid’s class completed a computer-based careers questionnaire that included selecting what their parents did. My kid picked something vaguely suitable for my husband, but couldn’t find technical writer (no surprise), so selected… Typist! There’s nothing wrong with typists (are there any left?), but I do no more typing than my husband and many other people.
After 25+ years and 10 national conferences, this picture book is the best and most enjoyable explanation of my job that I’ve encountered. If Jonathan Emmett submitted this instead of a CV (resumé) for a technical writing role, he should be interviewed immediately. Maybe I’ll send this book to my now adult kid to remind them what I do…
Image: Troubleshooting
Knowledge matters
Knowledge alone is not sufficient. Context matters. Hence the old joke:
Kim retired after 20 years of maintaining the crucial Uber Widget machine. A couple of years later, it broke. Many people spent hours on it, but no one could fix it, so Kim was asked to pop in. She went round the back of the machine, and after a few moments, it was running smoothly. A few days later, she submitted an invoice for £5,000. The outraged CFO called Kim to demand an itemised invoice. Kim obliged:
1. Replacement Flibblewang: £1
2. Knowing where to put it: £4,999
TOTAL £5,000
Image: Lifetime Guarantee
• Small children will enjoy the delightful monsters and the useless adults.
• Useless adults will relate to the frustration of bad design, inadequate instructions, and impatient small children.
• Technical writers (me) will appreciate a brilliant demonstration of what we do, and why our skills are needed.
Image: Assembling your Monster
Just like real technical documentation, the book includes:
• Delivery note
• Labels and warnings on packaging (ignored)
• Inventory of contents - labelled
• Exploded diagrams and sequential steps for assembly
• Distinguishing features of different models
• Switching on
• Usage instructions
• Maintenance
• Dos and don’ts
• Safety notes (near the end!)
• Troubleshooting
• Lifetime guarantee (whose - yours or the monster’s?)
Image: Danger is shown, but downplayed, at the corner of a page
Like all good instructions, the author and illustrator know their audience and appreciate the importance of context. It’s task-oriented, showing expected - and unexpected - results.
Image: Dos and Don’ts
Technical writing is not just typing!
Aged 12, my kid’s class completed a computer-based careers questionnaire that included selecting what their parents did. My kid picked something vaguely suitable for my husband, but couldn’t find technical writer (no surprise), so selected… Typist! There’s nothing wrong with typists (are there any left?), but I do no more typing than my husband and many other people.
After 25+ years and 10 national conferences, this picture book is the best and most enjoyable explanation of my job that I’ve encountered. If Jonathan Emmett submitted this instead of a CV (resumé) for a technical writing role, he should be interviewed immediately. Maybe I’ll send this book to my now adult kid to remind them what I do…
Image: Troubleshooting
Knowledge matters
Knowledge alone is not sufficient. Context matters. Hence the old joke:
Kim retired after 20 years of maintaining the crucial Uber Widget machine. A couple of years later, it broke. Many people spent hours on it, but no one could fix it, so Kim was asked to pop in. She went round the back of the machine, and after a few moments, it was running smoothly. A few days later, she submitted an invoice for £5,000. The outraged CFO called Kim to demand an itemised invoice. Kim obliged:
1. Replacement Flibblewang: £1
2. Knowing where to put it: £4,999
TOTAL £5,000
Image: Lifetime Guarantee
March 10, 2021
An entertaining concept and quite well done. A children's book, set out like an instruction manual to comic effect. I enjoyed reading this in my best 'newsreader' voice to suit the tone of the book.
The names and pictures of each individual monster cracked me up. Lots of fun!
The names and pictures of each individual monster cracked me up. Lots of fun!
July 20, 2012
a very funny book.
written like instruction leaflet's found in flat pack furniture. it tells you how to assemble and care for your new monster
my 4 year old found this very entertaining.
written like instruction leaflet's found in flat pack furniture. it tells you how to assemble and care for your new monster
my 4 year old found this very entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews