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Monster School
Twilight's here. The death bell rings. Everyone knows what the death bell brings—it's time for class! You're in the place where goblins wail and zombies drool. (That's because they're kindergartners.) Welcome to Monster School. In this entertaining collection of poems, award-winning poet Kate Coombs and debut artist Lee Gatlin bring to vivid life a wide and playful cast of characters (outgoing, shy, friendly, funny, prickly, proud) that may seem surprisingly like the kids you know . . . even if these kids are technically monsters.
36 pages, Hardcover
First published August 28, 2018
6 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Kate Coombs
35 books52 followersI was born in Spokane, Washington, but I spent most of my childhood in Camarillo, California, which is about an hour's drive north of Los Angeles. Whenever possible as a child, I read books—books, books, and more books. The rest of the time I rode my bike with my sister, Loni, or looked after my little brother and sister. Sometimes we went to the movies at an old theater we called "The Sticky Theater" because there was always soda spilled on the floor. I was already a fan of fairy tales and comedy, so it shouldn't surprise you to hear that my favorite movie when I was a child was Snow White and the Three Stooges.
I began writing stories, poems, and plays in grade school. For the plays, I would write myself parts like The Glorious Queen and my sister parts like The Quiet Servant Girl. She was a pretty good sport about it!
When I was a teenager, I played bells in the marching band and oboe in the concert band. For a while I wanted to be a concert oboist. I even learned to cut and tie my own double reeds, a tricky task. Next I dreamed of becoming an artist. But once I got to college and started studying art, my first love—books—came back and grabbed me, so I ended up majoring in English. I eventually worked as a college writing teacher, an editor of coffee table books and technical manuals, and a grade school teacher. I later worked as a home teacher, driving around Los Angeles to teach seriously ill students. I've been teaching on and off for years, instructing students in every single grade from K-13, kindergarten to college!
While I was teaching, I was also writing stories in my free time. I wrote a lot of stories, which gave me practice and helped me become a better writer. After a while I started sending my stories to publishers, asking to have them made into books for kids. It took a long time, but eventually my dreams came true—now I'm a published writer!
Six Fun Facts
My dad used to call me Kate the Great.
I was once attacked by a monkey.
When I see a dry leaf on the sidewalk, I go out of my way to step on it and hear the crunch.
I have six brothers and sisters. We're all adopted and from four different ethnic backgrounds.
I can flicker my nostrils really well.
My favorite color is the blue-green at the top of an ocean wave when it catches the light just before it falls.
I began writing stories, poems, and plays in grade school. For the plays, I would write myself parts like The Glorious Queen and my sister parts like The Quiet Servant Girl. She was a pretty good sport about it!
When I was a teenager, I played bells in the marching band and oboe in the concert band. For a while I wanted to be a concert oboist. I even learned to cut and tie my own double reeds, a tricky task. Next I dreamed of becoming an artist. But once I got to college and started studying art, my first love—books—came back and grabbed me, so I ended up majoring in English. I eventually worked as a college writing teacher, an editor of coffee table books and technical manuals, and a grade school teacher. I later worked as a home teacher, driving around Los Angeles to teach seriously ill students. I've been teaching on and off for years, instructing students in every single grade from K-13, kindergarten to college!
While I was teaching, I was also writing stories in my free time. I wrote a lot of stories, which gave me practice and helped me become a better writer. After a while I started sending my stories to publishers, asking to have them made into books for kids. It took a long time, but eventually my dreams came true—now I'm a published writer!
Six Fun Facts
My dad used to call me Kate the Great.
I was once attacked by a monkey.
When I see a dry leaf on the sidewalk, I go out of my way to step on it and hear the crunch.
I have six brothers and sisters. We're all adopted and from four different ethnic backgrounds.
I can flicker my nostrils really well.
My favorite color is the blue-green at the top of an ocean wave when it catches the light just before it falls.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
October 18, 2018
Author Kate Coombs and illustrator Lee Gatlin deliver a spooky collection of monstrous poems in this engaging picture-book, perfect for the Halloween season. "Climb up the wistful, mistful hill / where weeping gargoyles sit. / Slip past the gloomful, moonful graves / where small ghosts peer and flit. / Walk up the weary, dreary path / where scarab beetles crawl. / Come in the sneaky, creaky door / and pace the doom-dark hall." So begins the text, which then presents eighteen individual poems devoted to specific students at the Monster School (and in one case, their game of baseball in the graveyard). The final selection profiles a seemingly ordinary boy... but is he?
Readers who enjoyed such titles as Adam Rex's Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich , or Marilyn Singer and Gris Grimly's Monster Museum , which also offer picture-book collections of spooky poems, will undoubtedly enjoy Monster School. The poems are creepy and humorous by turn, with an occasional phrase that caught my eye. The final portion of "It's Nice," about a shy little creature, was particularly lovely: "People call me a ghost, like my edges are fluttering. / But I'm just quiet, the way a night / shines with stars that aren't saying a word." The illustrations are well-suited to the text, capturing the gruesome humor of the poems. Recommended to anyone in the market for new Halloween poetry collections.
Readers who enjoyed such titles as Adam Rex's Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich , or Marilyn Singer and Gris Grimly's Monster Museum , which also offer picture-book collections of spooky poems, will undoubtedly enjoy Monster School. The poems are creepy and humorous by turn, with an occasional phrase that caught my eye. The final portion of "It's Nice," about a shy little creature, was particularly lovely: "People call me a ghost, like my edges are fluttering. / But I'm just quiet, the way a night / shines with stars that aren't saying a word." The illustrations are well-suited to the text, capturing the gruesome humor of the poems. Recommended to anyone in the market for new Halloween poetry collections.
September 4, 2019
Very cute book. I love the art work and the rhymes are pretty good. This would work well to teach kids about rhyme schemes, especially around fHalloween 🎃
January 19, 2019
In this kooky and zany book, young readers will find rhymes about a student who loses things–like body parts, a unique family tree, a boy who avoids his homework, a girl who you would be wise not to cross, and more monsters with all kinds of antics. These delightful lyrics will entertain any youngster who enjoys monsters. Accompanied by spectacular artwork from Lee Gatlin, Monster School is sure to be a favorite for Halloween and other times of the year when you want a laugh. Reminiscent of Shel Silverstein, this book will get lots of reading time.
November 6, 2019
This was a great find and an awesome read! Perfect for Halloween night reading. The poems are about the students and activities at monster school. My favorite was the last one about the ordinary kid... or is he?!?!? Illustrations are great as well and it's not too scary for the little ones to read or have their parents read it to them.
November 16, 2023
While the rhyming schemes on a few of these poems kind of threw me off, overall I'd say I really liked these poems. Younger readers who love monsters might enjoy reading about monsters engaging in everyday activities at school, much like they do. Some of these were actually very fun, and the artwork that accompanied each page felt very fitting.
August 4, 2018
Add a bit of gory/scary/creepy pizazz to your holiday storytimes this October with poems from this nifty number ...
These eighteen short poems by Kate Coombs all give background about the kids that attend
"Monster School" and some of the things they do while in school. There's Stevie the Loser (a zombie that reminds me of Zombelina by Kristyn Crow -- he loses body parts all over the classroom); the "multicultural" girl whose great grandparents include (among other things) a wizard, a troll, a snake, an elf, a boggart, and a witch; a gargoyle; a ghost; a bully witch; a girl with snakes for hair. Learn to play baseball in the graveyard, eat from a smorgasbord of yucky dishes, work on homework and participate in the science fair. Watch out especially for that Ordinary Kid! All in a day's work with the monsters who attend Monster School.
Illustrator Lee Gatlin brings new meaning to some of the monsters in this book. They can be creepy, scary, funny and inventive. Artwork is rendered both in traditional and digital media and is well-matched to the darkness and humor found in the poems.
My only quibble... In her invitation to come to Monster School, Coombs explains that zombies drool "...because they're kindergarteners."... All of the characters look like they are in middle grades, including Stevie the Loser.
Enjoy! ...If you dare...
Recommended for grades 4-8.
These eighteen short poems by Kate Coombs all give background about the kids that attend
"Monster School" and some of the things they do while in school. There's Stevie the Loser (a zombie that reminds me of Zombelina by Kristyn Crow -- he loses body parts all over the classroom); the "multicultural" girl whose great grandparents include (among other things) a wizard, a troll, a snake, an elf, a boggart, and a witch; a gargoyle; a ghost; a bully witch; a girl with snakes for hair. Learn to play baseball in the graveyard, eat from a smorgasbord of yucky dishes, work on homework and participate in the science fair. Watch out especially for that Ordinary Kid! All in a day's work with the monsters who attend Monster School.
Illustrator Lee Gatlin brings new meaning to some of the monsters in this book. They can be creepy, scary, funny and inventive. Artwork is rendered both in traditional and digital media and is well-matched to the darkness and humor found in the poems.
My only quibble... In her invitation to come to Monster School, Coombs explains that zombies drool "...because they're kindergarteners."... All of the characters look like they are in middle grades, including Stevie the Loser.
Enjoy! ...If you dare...
Recommended for grades 4-8.
October 31, 2018
Monster School, written by Kate Coombs, showcases a group of very unusual students. There’s a multicultural monster with purple hair and three scaly tails, a vampire who doesn’t like homework, a skateboarding pumpkin head, and more. Each has a poem about what it’s like to live their lives; which are similar in many ways to students everywhere, but with a twist. For instance, Compare and Contrast starts with these lines:
Ms. Blackhurst is a banshee.
She has burning eyes.
She gets mad a lot.
When she does, she screams
like horrible dreams
in a voice that’s filled with rot.
The collection of poems makes a great book to read at Halloween; it’s humorous, and the characters experience a range of activities and emotions. Lee Gatlin’s illustrations are whimsical and lighthearted, and they go well with the poetry. I recommend Monster School for readers aged 5 to 8.
The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Ms. Blackhurst is a banshee.
She has burning eyes.
She gets mad a lot.
When she does, she screams
like horrible dreams
in a voice that’s filled with rot.
The collection of poems makes a great book to read at Halloween; it’s humorous, and the characters experience a range of activities and emotions. Lee Gatlin’s illustrations are whimsical and lighthearted, and they go well with the poetry. I recommend Monster School for readers aged 5 to 8.
The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
September 25, 2018
There are some creepy youngsters, classrooms, and even classroom pets featured in the 17, 18, if you count the introductory one, poems found in this book. The illustrations, created with traditional and digital media, are attractive and eye-catching, but the poems didn't really work for me. I can see teachers using some of the poems during Halloween time, though, in order to set the mood for some scary doings. There are sad ghosts, zombies, monsters, and even a Medusa featured here, someone whose hair must definitely be handled with care. Youngsters will enjoy this one more than I did, but I find myself still thinking about what happens when Coach Gorey decides to cut someone from his team. OUCH!
November 4, 2018
When I went to school, there were definitely a few kids I considered monstrous...but they were tame compared to the banshees and nagi, the werewolves and pumpkin heads (bringing back horror movie memories) that populate Monster School. And even though (or maybe because) these students are decidedly weird, I could relate to them, especially the faun or tree witch (not sure) taking her book outside to read and the gargoyle who is solitary but self-confident. These monsters have all kinds of personalities and many of the same fears and attitudes that humans have. It's full of gruesome laughs but also great conversation starters.
March 14, 2023
This was a super cute book filled with rhymes about monsters and going to a school dedicated to them. The poems were fun to read aloud and the illustrations were absolutely adorable. Some of the poems were weaker than the others in the collection but I still enjoyed the book overall!
September 5, 2018
Really cool art. Story is so-so.
November 13, 2018
My son (4) LOVED this book. It was just the right amount of gore and spookiness for him this Halloween!
November 17, 2018
A collection of poems about monsters and their school. Nothing outstanding here, rhymes and average illustrations.
February 21, 2019
good, spooky poems for kids. Great for Halloween
March 30, 2019
Clever poems for children emphasizing inclusiveness and girl power within a context that could alienate them from each other.
October 24, 2019
Cute
Enjoyable for all ages of children or children at heart. Very charming and detailed illustrations to be studied again and again.
Enjoyable for all ages of children or children at heart. Very charming and detailed illustrations to be studied again and again.
July 16, 2021
A delightfully spooky poetic take on diversity and problems for kids growing up and going to school, no matter who they are.
October 24, 2021
A fun spooky poetry picture book with fantastic illustrations. I loved the recurring kids in the illustrations, especially the girl with the floating hair.
November 3, 2021
A fun Halloweeny collection of poems. I appreciate the inclusivity and the fab illustrations by Lee Gatlin.
May 29, 2022
A longer picture book for older children, a cute read for spooky fans.
September 18, 2022
3 stars for the poems but 4 stars for the incredible illustrations that went along with them.
February 9, 2023
Not for me.
October 25, 2023
Pretty cool monsters. And lots of 'em. I'd hate to be the custodian at this school!
December 4, 2023
spooky vibes
This book was so Adorable great for little monsters everywhere!! Great for a Halloween treat or even all year round
This book was so Adorable great for little monsters everywhere!! Great for a Halloween treat or even all year round
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews