There Was an Old Monster!

by Rebecca Emberley, Ed Emberley (Illustrator), Adrian Emberley

A brand-new monster twist--by a Caldecott medalist and his daughter! There was an old monster who swallowed a tickI don't know why he swallowed that tick'Cause it made him feel sick!When he swallowed some ants, he danced in his pants. He swallowed a lizard, a bat, a jackal, and a bear. Then he tried to swallow a lion . . . ROAR!--Now that monster is no more! Children will laugh along with the funny text, bright bold illustrations, and delightful song (available on the Scholastic website).

Genres: Picture Books, Monsters, Halloween, Storytime, Childrens, Animals, Music

32 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2009

Reviews

[Veronika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted the monster to eat more lol!

*Read for story time 10/24/24

[Brooke Beeson-King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a favorite with kindergarten! The song on the Scholastic site makes it even more fun!

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A silly cumulative tale in verse of a monster who swallows a tick and the actions he takes to cure his belly ache.

[Amy Wadsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a clever re-vamp of "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly," but I found myself trying to sing the words to the old familiar tune and the words didn't fit. It does have a downloadable song to go with it on scholastic.com. So, with a little research, that small irritation may not matter. Plus, I'm sure it bothered me more than it would bother others. The illustrations are cute and the twist on the classic is fun, with a surprise ending.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun read play on 'there was an old woman'. Kids were proud if they made the connection. They didn't dance as much as I wanted but I think one on one you could tickle when the ants came out. I also appreciated the chance to introduce some new vocabulary (not all ordinary animals).

[Bookjeannnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kids LOVED this book, we played the song that goes with it during the second reading. You know a book is great when the kids chant, "AGAIN!AGAIN!"

Song at: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/boo...

[Catherine Woodman]

This is There was an old woman who swallowed a fly, I don't know why I swallowed a fly, perhaps she'll die. EXCELLENT illustrations that are both gorgeous colors and very good depictions of the animals and bugs--plus a surprise ending. An excellent alternative to the original.

[Tanya Wadley · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was an old monster!... we sang it to the tune of There was an old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (but it didn't fit some of the time). Cool art. We may have liked it better if we had listened to the song on the internet (that's pretty cool!).

[Countess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a take on the children's song, "There was an old woman" except with a monster. The artwork is fun and this is great for beginning readers. My son is Kindergarten age and loved reading along with us as a family, and the accompanying disc plays the song which is also fun.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cumulative story can be sung to the tune of There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. There's also a free download of this story/song. A monster swallowed a tick, then ants to get the tick, but the ants scritched and scratched inside him so he kept swallowing animals - to a surprising end.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A variation of the old lady who swallowed the fly. Might be good in a monster story time.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for Halloween storytime, you could get them reapeating the lines with you, and a flannel would work well with this book with the different things the monster swallows.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute take on "There was an old lady who swallowed the fly". Also can download song for storytime

[Joann · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those who loved There Was An Old Woman Who Swalled A Fly--this is wonderful language along with wonderful art to make a terrific story time pick.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun - especially with the free downloadable song.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun take on a classic, with classic Emberley illustrations.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A version of I know an old lady who swallowed a fly but with a Monster swallowing things.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a really cute and funny book for little kids. It's a parody of "There was an old lady" so it's a great read for kids familiar with that story.

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the Emberleys' vibrantly colored illustrations, but the text didn't work very well as a read-aloud. The riff off "there was an old lady" worked better for adults.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute! The download of the song from Scholastic made it even better. I can't wait to use this in storytime!

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book from there was an old lady song. Like the way it is told. Scary for little ones if you
don't sing it.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

34 months - yet another take on the "There was an old..." We love monsters but we really didn't grab this one up to read it over and over.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used in Preschool storytime 3/10/2016 - went over pretty well, but some of the younger 3's were getting pretty distracted by the end.

[Cosette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprise ending was fun!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Halloween version of "there was an old lady." surprise ending

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, goofy little read about a monster who apparently will eat anything until he finds something that eats him instead.

[Yan Zhou]

This book is the monster version of “The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”. It begins with a monster who was sick because he swallowed a tick. To cure his sickness, the monster swallowed a plethora of insects ad animals. It ends with his encounter with a lion which is too huge for the monster to swallow.

The reason I chose as WOW book is that its rhyme and twister. My first-grade students love this book. They especially like to read along with me “scritch scratch scritch scratch...” Another reason is that the spooky insects and animals are the first graders’ favorite topic. Especially during the Halloween season, this book is my first graders’ favorite read-aloud book.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun one to read and sing along. You can even have the kids scratch their arms or knees along with the beat of the song when they sing the "scritchy scratch" part.

Scholastic has revamped their site so the address in the book no longer links to the song, but it can still be found by directly visiting http://www.scholastic.com/browse/medi....

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good unexpected ending 😆. My daughter and I sang this together as we read it. I really enjoyed the illustration style, it reminded me of something. Maybe Color Zoo? I can't remember. But this was good!

[Egallagher2016gmail.Com · Rating 4 out of 5]

It isn't creepy enough.