The nights are cold. The trees are bare. Ghosts, goblins and witches lurk in the dark. Halloween is around the corner! Help your child celebrate the spooky season with chapter books about monsters and other creatures of the night.
Monster Hunting for Beginners by Ian Mark
There are 100 ways to defeat an ogre. Well…close to 100 ways. Some things have changed over the years. You are no longer allowed to tie their shoelaces together. They consider that cheating. You can’t blindfold them and send them over a cliff anymore either. Hunting ogres isn’t what it used to be.
Monster Hunting for Beginners is a light, clever story about a young boy named Jack. His life turns upside down when he comes home to find his father missing. His Aunt Prudence arrives to take care of him, which is odd because Jack doesn’t have an Aunt Prudence. Soon after a giant ogre appears and tries to eat her. Jack manages to defeat the ogre, but he can’t help but think that something fishy is going on. Indeed! It turns out he is destined to become a Monster Hunter.
Becoming a Monster Hunter is far more complicated than it sounds. First, you must complete a Monster Hunting Apprenticeship. Then there are all the rules you need to learn. Plus, there’s all the different categories of monsters you need to study. (I bet you never heard of an Anticore!) And to make things even harder some of the monster’s don’t even have names, just vague descriptions like the big blob with all the mouths. But once you get the hang of things…it can actually be pretty cool.
This is an easy read, that will have kids giggling all the way through. Don’t forget to read all the footnotes at the bottom of the page – that’s where all the good stuff is.
Let the Monster Out By Chad Lucas
It all started in the library. First, the librarians began acting strange. They were irritated, disorganized and unhelpful. Then all the library patrons started to act strange. They went in as ordinary people and came out as mindless shells of their former selves.
Bones is a baseball player. He loves nothing more than being on the pitcher’s mound. Usually, his mom is his number one fan but lately her behavior has changed. She’s usually an assertive and resolute person. Now she just sits and stares into space. Other weird stuff is happening too. Bones and his brother are having the same dreams.
Kyle knows he’s not like other kids. He likes to make lists and writes ideas on a white board. Everything in his room is in meticulous order. Organization comes naturally to him. He’s the first person to notice that something in the town is really out of sorts.
Bones and Kyle team up to figure out what is going on with everyone. They call it the ‘alien zombie librarian’ effect. They follow the clues until the uncover the truth.
Let the Monster Out is a mystery novel mixed with a touch of horror. Bones and Kyle make a great detective team. Bones is the charismatic street-smart one, while Kyle is the quiet, logical one. The friendship between the boys grows as the story goes on. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, but they manage to fill in each other’s gaps. The plot is similar to a Scooby-Doo style mystery. They must solve it one clue at a time while revealing the ‘big baddie’ at the end. The spooky part of the story is light enough that it won’t scare young readers. I highly recommend it as a story to read together under the covers with a flashlight.
Check it out 