Monster Goose: A Magic Shop Book [Hardcover]

Judy Sierra (Author), Jack E. Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Old Monster Goose has turned Mother Goose’s world of nursery rhymes inside out! Here she presents twenty-five deliciously disgusting new poems, filled with rodents and maggots, zombies and ghouls, spiders and, of course, monsters. Remember King Cole? That terrible troll washes his feet in the toilet bowl. And poor Mistress Mary, her garden’s quite scary--its killer potatoes ate all her tomatoes and now are out looking for Mary!
From the bestselling author of Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems and the popular illustrator of the Zack Files comes a zany book that has everyone talking:

“Terribly tasteless. Downright gross.”--Mother Goose
“Somebody, help!”--Mistress Mary

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Something has happened to good old Mother Goose--she's not the same kindly storyteller she once was. In fact, that isn't Mother Goose tapping away at her laptop computer at all. It's Monster Goose! With a diabolical grin beneath her granny glasses and fangs peeking out from her beak, this twisted matriarch wreaks marvelously evil havoc on 25 favorite nursery rhymes. Now featuring ghouls, vampire bats, and cannibals, these verses appeal to the perverse corner in every reader's mind. Just a taste:

There was an old zombie who lived in a shoe.
She had so many maggots, she didn't know what to do.
So she soaked them in soapsuds and painted them green.
She'll be giving them out next Halloween.

Not for the faint of heart, Judy Sierra's grisly rhymes are accompanied by such fabulously hideous illustrations by Jack E. Davis (the Zack Files series, Bedhead, etc.), any potential nightmares will be diverted by helpless giggles. Readers will delight in identifying the original classic nursery rhymes behind such titles as "Mary Had a Vampire Bat," "Weird Mother Hubbard," "Hush, Little Monster," and "Werewolf Bo-Creep." Sierra and Davis are an ingenious pair indeed. For more ghoulish nonsense, don't miss Sierra's The House that Drac Built. And for still more playful poems, try her Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems. (Ages 5 and older) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

Sierra (There's a Zoo in Room 22) and Davis (Bedhead) replace storybook characters with their ghoulish alter egos in this silly-scary Mother Goose knockoff. Every spread presents one revised rhyme and pictures the comical doppelg„nger of a familiar figure. In "Mary Had a Vampire Bat," a fiendish girl frightens her classmates with her pet: "She brought him out for show-and-tell;/ The teacher screamed and ran./ And school was canceled for a week,/ Just as Mary planned." Green-skinned "Cannibal Horner" chomps off his own thumb ("A tasty young morsel am I!"), and the usual mouse is upstaged in "Slithery, dithery, dock,/ The snake slid up the clock." Sierra invites a sing-along in "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Slug" and "The itsy-bitsy spider/ Climbed up the warthog's snout," and she turns a song of sixpence into an even less appetizing yarn: "Sing a song of sea slime, sewer gas, and sludge./ Four and twenty wharf rats dipped in mocha fudge." Davis, working in acrylics and colored pencil, crowds his illustrations with monsters, vermin and gross gags. But he indicates the verses' humor by giving the characters diabolical ear-to-ear grins, shifty eyes and skulky postures. The Goose has been spoofed before, but this volume strikes a nice balance between goofy and ghastly. Ages 5-8.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 56 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152020349
• ISBN-13: 978-0152020347
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,672,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #83 in Books > Children's Books > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Collections

More About the Author

I grew up in a very creative, book-loving family. My father was a photographer, and my mother was a librarian. They read to me constantly, especially poetry. When I was seven, they built me a puppet theater and I gave my first performance, "The Three Wishes." In college I studied literature, and afterwards I became a children's librarian. A few years later, I set out on my own as a puppeteer, quickly joining forces with another puppet artist, who became my husband. We studied traditional puppetry in Indonesia, and traveled all over the U.S. as teachers and artists-in-residence. About twenty years ago, I combined what I had learned as an avid reader and writer, as a librarian and children's entertainer, and began writing books for children. All of my books are meant to be read aloud and dramatized. To learn more about how each of my books came to be, please visit my web site: http://www.judysierra.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wickedly Witty, January 10, 2002

By 

annabelle m aylmer (altadena, california United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monster Goose: A Magic Shop Book (Hardcover)

It is always a relief for me to read a childrens book that credits children with the experience and imagination to delight in references to things slimey, disgusting or horror-ful without wanting to get the Bounty and the Raid and make it nice. There are no more eager participants in the imaginative exploration of the gross and horrifying than those of the younger members of our species. Unimpaired by experience, not yet socially sanitized, but trusting the covers of a book, children eagerly go with Sierra to that edge between fantasy and reality for the thrill of the near but safely missed slip into true horrors. So if Barny and Mister Rogers kind of make you want to throw up, get down with the kids like Ms. Sierra does and wollow in the splendidly delightful illustrations of Mr. Davis.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, September 25, 2006

By 

Book Mom (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monster Goose (Paperback)

Apparently this is either a love it or hate it book, so add me to the former. As to the scary illustrations, look at the cover. It is very indicative of the style of illustrations inside, so anyone who is suprised that this *monster* book has monsterous illustrations wasn't paying attention to the front. What are they supposed to look like, Care Bears? And as to the dangerous issues of ingesting gasoline and turpintine, I just used it as an educational experience and told my son that since these were made up creatures they could do unreal things, like drink poison, which we as humans could never, ever do because we could die. And, wonder of wonders, he got it. Have a little faith in your kids to separate fantasy from reality - if they can't, you have no business reading them monster books anyway.

This is a very clever, fun book and I wish it had been even longer. We got it first from the library but bought our own copy after the first reading because it is one that we parents don't get bored with reading over and over. The rhymes are great and there is always some new detail to discover in the pictures.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monster Magic, September 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Monster Goose: A Magic Shop Book (Hardcover)

Perfect for Halloween, for any child (or adult!) who enjoys a clever turn of phrase and monster rhymes, this hilarious poetry collection take off on classic Mother goose is a riot from start to finish. Touted as a picture book for ages 5 to 8, this 45 year old laughed out loud at nearly every page. Whether your funny bone is tickled by "Jill and Jacques, who went to the Loch" and their meeting with the infamous Loch Ness inhabitant, or Mary who took her bat to school and had a much better adventure than Mary with her lamb, or Cannibal Horner and his people pot pie, there are plent of laughs just waiting to be had. The illustrations are a perfect complement to the ghoulish subject matter. Don't wait for Hallowen to buy this one!