4.0 out of 5 stars
Nostalgia lurks in the closet., October 21, 2011
Bruce Coville was a big name in children's pop literature in the 90s, noted for high-concept sci-fi and fantasy stories that presented serious issues to kids but mingled the heavy stuff with humor and a broad sense of wonder. He was a bit like RL Stine, but with creative integrity.
Coville served as editor and compiler on a series of themed anthologies presenting genre fiction to kids. Originally slated at four, there ended up being twelve books in all, covering themes like monsters, ghosts, magic, and sundry other topics that account for why we, the readers, later went on to be perpetually dateless in high school.
So, as an adult, how do these collections stack up? Let's break down the inaugural edition story by story:
-"My Little Brother is a Monster":
The centerpiece of each anthology is always a novella by Coville. In fact, I suspect that a big part of the draw of the project for the masthead writer was the chance to publish long stories that were not quite up to being full-length novels.
Our hero is Jason, is an average kid with some serious daddy issues (broken homes are a big theme throughout these collections, to the point that we'll be keeping a tally). One night he and his mother find an abandoned baby in a reed basket on their doorstep. Yes. Just go with it, okay?
Turns out the little tyke is no ordinary abandonment case; he turns into a werewolf-like creature every full moon. Of course only Jason ever sees him. If this story were written for adults, Jason would probably be due for some serious medication right about now, but lucky for him he's the hero of a children's book, so the worst he has to cope with is monsters rather than psychiatric care.
For most writer's this rough scenario would be plot enough, but Coville weaves in an epic fantasy story of good monsters, evil monsters, alternate worlds, strange magic, and, above all, family. The tale sets up two major themes in the book, one of kids trying to hold their families together and another of kids assuming the burden of great responsibility. Adult readers will appreciate that, while kids will just be charmed by the high-concept fantasy.
-"Momster in the Closet":
That's not a typo on my part, that's the real title.
This very brief affair, about a kid whose younger brother tells tall tales of monsters in the closet. The whole thing is just a set-up for a twist ending that bewildered me as a kid and elicited eye-rolling as an adult. A good tool for teaching very young children about foreshadowing in literature, but not much else.
-"Merlin's Knight School":
Author Michael Markiewicz cribs from "The Once and Future King" with a story about young King Arthur and his bossy older brother Cai. Yeah, we're hitting the "Kids deal with responsibility," thing pretty hard, pretty early in this book. Look, there's a huge green monster on the cover, what do you want, subtlety?
Heavy-handed or not, this story is flogging hilarious. Headstrong kid Arthur and preteen cynic Cai are a hoot and a half. Many similar stories appeared in later editions, and swiftly became a centerpiece of the collections.
-"Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen":
By far the most grim and weighty story in the book, a tale of hardnosed country folk and a desperate bid to save their cousin from the inhuman creatures who carried her away to a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Just in case, ya know, you ever thought that there ought to be kid's version of "I am Legend." And who hasn't, am I right? Right? Right?
This story is one of the best in the book, particularly for adults who will probably appreciate the twist ending more than kids. "Uncle Joshua" illustrates the diversity of tone and content that the collection aims for.
-"Kokolimalayas, the Bone Man":
Supposedly adapted from a Modoc Indian myth, this folktale tells about a young boy who must vie with the skeletal giant who wiped out the rest of his tribe (there's that responsibility thing again).
Not being a folklorist, this one is hard for me to parse, but in truth I found it a little dry. Get it, dry, because it's about a skeleton? See what I did there? Do you see the play on words? Gold people, I'm giving you gold here!
No, but seriously, a dull story. Moving on.
-"The Thing That Goes Burp in the Night":
This one has it all; humor, scares, angst, atmosphere, beets, what more do you want?
Our story is of two young kids whose mother and father run off to the hospital one night to have a third child. For some reason they leave their young sons alone all night rather than take them along, leading us to perhaps question whether they should even have as many kids as they do much less one more, but we'll let that slide.
The kids squabble and the older one gets the bright idea of scaring his younger brother (notice this is the fourth story to touch on the relationship between brothers) by pretending to summon a horrible monster - only to later discover that he's succeeded! Were this a modern tale, the kid would then swiftly set about trying to summon Christina Hendricks, but this book was written in 1994 so we keep it PG around here.
The thing that makes this story stand out is its handling of the kid's emotional conflict; the monster is really a manifestation of their anxiety about how their home life will change after the new baby comes. Confronting it reassures them, and the reader, about the strength and value of family in the face of a crisis.
-"Personality Problem":
This short, oddball story is about the Frankenstein Monster having a chat with his therapist.
Yes.
I surely hope we were all wondering what it would be like if Woody Allen adapted Mary Shelley, because now we know.
As an adult this story is quite hilarious, but as a kid it went right over my head. A flat note for the most part.
-"Duffy' Jacket":
Another Coville story, this one about burgeoning misogynist Andrew (seriously, this kid has more mommy issues than Freud) and his scatterbrained cousin Duffy (both come from single-parent homes, putting our broken home count at three for the series so far), whose lost jacket attracts the attention of a monstrous visitor.
This story is another winner from Coville, being both tension-filled and funny. Granted, the main character is such a smartass that I was rooting for Bigfoot to pull his arms off most of the time, but I'm just plain not well-adjusted and probably your eight year old won't have my same unsettling emotional issues.
-"The Bogeyman":
This entry is a 16-line poem by Jack Prelutsky. Catchy, tense, and atmospheric, but ultimately slight. It's accompanied by illustrator John Pierard's best (and most nightmare-inducing) work in the book.
-"Bloody Mary":
A young girl spends a court-appointed weekend with her father and his new family (Broken Home Count: Four).
When her stepsister says "Bloody Mary" in the mirror thirteen times and turns into a monster (yeah, I know, that's not the way the story works, roll with it) the kiddo is on her own trying to resolve the situation.
If any story in the book is truly scary, this is it. Very similar to "The Thing That Goes Burp in the Night", with its tense stalking scenes in total darkness, "Bloody Mary" is an interesting take on growing up. The stepsisters are very close but one is older than the other; soon she'll start to become an adult, and the fear about their changing relationship bleeds over into the supernatural conflict.
And the ending is a real kicker. I won't give it away but, brrrr.
-"The Beast with a Thousand Teeth":
On the complete opposite end of the scale from such dark tales as "Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen", this is a piece of fairy tale fluff that will delight particularly young kids.
It's fitting that so much of this story centers on pastries, as the story itself is sweet and pleasing but with only minimal substance. A handy balance to the darker material.
-"Timor and the Furnace Troll":
And then there's this...thing.
Coville warns in the intro that this story is "just plain sick," and boy is he right. Timor is a young elf boy who is an outcast misfit at school. You can see that author John Barnes and editor Coville really know their audience, as chances are if you spent a lot of time reading these books in grade school then you, like Timor, were an elf.
Or something to that effect?
Timor finally makes a friend in the form of the old troll who hides out in the school's furnace room. If you're looking at this scenario of an emotionally vulnerable preteen misfit and his clandestine meetings with an old man who lurks around the school grounds and fearing where this story is headed, well, you're right to worry. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't turn into an enchanted episode of SVU; rather, what happens is even worse. I won't give it away but, really, unbelievable.
Conclusion: The strength of this collection is its diversity. Every story is on the same theme, but they all hit a different point of resonance. A few scary, a few funny, a few fantastic, and one or two just plain disturbing.
At the same time, this diversity is a check against the book, as it means that you're bound to find some things you don't like as much as some you do. As a kid I was disappointed by the relative dearth of horror overtones, but now I see where they were going with it.
Still, any kid should find something to love in here, and adults will appreciate the mature overtones of some of the better stories. The "Book of Monsters" is a good pick for all, and it leads us right into the next installment, "Bruce Coville's Book of Aliens." Stick around for that.
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