The I Am Reading: Perfect Monster

by Sally Grindley, Erica-Jane Waters

Badly behaved Mungus Bigfoot is the perfect monster. He's great at making slime pies, causing trouble, scaring old ladies, and saying naughty words. But when Mungus is ordered to instruct sweet little Emily Twinkletoes about how to act like a proper monster, she teaches him a lesson instead!

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Fiction

46 pages, Paperback

First published May 16, 2005

About the author

I came into children's books originally as Editorial Director of a nationwide children's book club, though I had written and directed a children's play while a student at Sussex University, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wrote my first two children's picture books in 1984 and was lucky enough that Anthony Browne wanted to illustrate the second - Knock Knock Who's There? It was published in 1985, is still going strong today and is one of my most successful.

Shhh! was published in 1991 and has known great success in France/Belgium in particular (close on 300,000 copies sold). It's success in the UK - it won the Children's Book Award - was hampered by the liquidation of its original publisher.

I became a full-time author in 1995 and now have some 150+ titles published, the most recent being L'Histoire du Soir in France, Belgium and Italy.

Feather Wars, published in 2003, was my first sortie into young fiction and was followed by the very successful Spilled Water, which has been published in some ten different languages and is very popular in schools as a class reader. It won the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (and I wound up being a 'Pointless' answer on the back of it!) Broken Glass came next and was a Sunday Times Book of the Week.

I'm currently working on picture books again and have plans to illustrate one of my own in the not too distant future - watch this space!

Reviews

[Elizabeth Banville · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. n/a
2. First Grade
3. This book is about Mungus Bigfoot a monster who is exceptional at being a scary, smelly monster. He helps Emily Twinkletoes because she is failing. She ends up teaching him a lesson instead.
4. This book is a great way to teach children to help our friends when they need it. It also teaches children to be kind. It also teaches children to be creative.
5. a. Children can create their own monsters to use to retell the story with a friend.
b. Children can come up with their own scenarios about how they can help their friends.

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miss 3 didn't enjoy it although I thought the story seemed like something many kids would find funny. The perfect monster is like a super naughty kid, whereas a failing monster is just too plain nice. The more he tries to make Emily naughty, the more he begins to realize that he likes her just the way she is.

[Arska-täti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ylermi Isojalka on täydellinen hirviö, mutta riittävätkö hänenkään taitonsa, kun opetettavaksi tulee surkein hirviö ikinä, Emilia Säihkysääri?

Mainio lastenkirja, joka uppoaa taatusti pienemmillekin lukijoille!

[Kylie Abecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cute book. It’s fun to read, the pictures are adorable and the wording is a great challenge for youngsters. Best read to an adult though, as it is quite a difficult book to read at a beginner level.