Garbage! Monster! Burp!

by Tom Watson

A monster at the bottom of a hill eats all of the garbage generated by the town on top of the hill. This provides two important The monster is happy with plenty to eat and the town stays nice and clean. Unfortunately, as the town grows, so does the amount of garbage the monster must consume. He gets bigger - and he starts burping. This is, as you can probably guess, a bit unsightly and stinky. In the end, the kids figure out how to solve the problem - despite the nasty mayor's doubts and objections.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Picture Books

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2010

About the author

Tom is the author and draws the original sketches for all the Stick Dog stories. He lives in Chicago with his wife, daughter and son. They also have a dog named Shadow. Tom did not want to name the dog Shadow. He wanted to name him ‘Put Your Shirt On.’ It’s a long story. Sometimes when Tom is visiting schools, he shares the story.

Tom’s first jobs out of college were in politics. He worked for U.S. Senator John Glenn and as the Chief Speechwriter for the Governor of Ohio. He has also worked in marketing and advertising. He likes writing books for kids a lot more than writing speeches and other things for grown-ups. He thinks kids are way smarter than grown-ups.

He LOVES writing the Stick Dog adventures.

Reviews

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

We were sitting on the patio of a busy restaurant and waiting for the cheque. My little Scoutie was getting seriosuly antsy, so I pulled her out of the high chair, plopped her in my lap and started reading Garbage Monster Burp. I'd read it to her before and hadn't liked it much, but I'd forgotten to delete it from my iPod, so there it was, ready to keep her busy for a good fifteen minutes.

Did it keep her busy? Sort of. It was mostly the iPod that kept her busy and the thrill of flipping the e-pages back and forth. A little bit of it was the voices I put on while reading. I'd be suprised if it was anything else.

Garbage Monster Burp tells the story of a big old monster living beneath a pretty town. The townsfolk throw their garbage down the hill for the monster to devour, but he gets fat and develops noxious burps as the town's consumption goes through the roof. The ineffectual mayor does nothing to fix the problem, relying on doublespeak and useless "committee" formation, but the kids of the town figure out that the answer to the question is to reduce their garbage output through recycling. And they get rich doing it. Yay for the kids!

My mother-in-law may not have heard the complete story because she is nearly deaf (she has double hearing aids that work well in a quiet environment but not so well in a busy restaurant), but she loved the story, and said with a smile, "That had a good message." If you say so Mom. It had more than a few messages, actually, but I am not so sure they are all good (I'll leave it to you to decide which messages are good or not):

1. The smaller the goverment the better.

2. Politicians are morons.

3. Watson believes the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.

4. Recycling is the answer.

5. Capitalism can support a sustainable world.

6. The economy's important no matter how bad other things get.

7. Consumption isn't a problem as long as the monster at the bottom of the hill can gobble up our waste.

I want to point out that my mother-in-law's support should be undesirable for any author. Whew! I feel better now.

Beyond Tom Watson's mess of messages, the story fails on one serious level -- rhyme. The rhythm flows for the first half of the book then *BAM!* he tries to rhyme "hill" and "smell" and the whole thing falls apart. In a short kids book that sort of mistake is unacceptable. A short message to Mr. Watson:

Find a rhyme that works, Tom, or rewrite until you find something that fits your rhyme scheme, but don't, seriously DO NOT, blow the rhythm. Rhythm is what makes parents read books like this to their kids, and when you fuck up that rhythm and force me, the reader, to rewrite that section to make the rhyme work, your work fails -- and it means that I won't be reading this book again. And you want rereads, don't you?

Still, I did like Garbage Monster Burp's South Park art, so I will probably give Watson's other free eBook a chance.

[Russell Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

My four year old son prefers paper books to my Kindle, but will sometimes ask me to read him a story from my Kindle.

He enjoyed this book, about a monster that eats a town's rubbish. The town grows, and so the monster has to eat more rubbish. The monster is a kind monster, so tries to eat it all, but there's too much. A bunch of kids talk to the monster, and realise the solution is to set up a recycling business so that the monster has less rubbish to eat.

It's a fun story, and my son enjoyed it. I only have two real criticisms:

Some of the pictures don't display well on an e-ink device, because the colours don't contrast well when viewed in greyscale. They look good on a colour screen, though.

Each page is an image, which means that it isn't possible to resize the text. I didn't need to, but it's something to be aware of.

[Darlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a child at heart. A baby-boomer. I didn't like reading this in two-tone. I read it on my Kindle-PC so I could enjoy the colored pictures. The story was wonderfully done. The rhythm of the rhyme got thrown off a bit but I loved the vocabulary introduced. I would have had many conversations with my children with a book like this one, alas, they are adults themselves now and read their own flavors of books. The illustrations were delightful. What a great idea to do them in felt! I hope by the time of grandchildren I will have the actual book in my hands to read aloud.

[ѦѺ™ · Rating 4 out of 5]

the rhyming was better though the paper cuts weren't as good as the ones in When Cows Fly
nevertheless, i still enjoyed the story. author Tom Watson sure has a way of raising social and environmental awareness among his young readers.
again, this is better read on one's PC or a compatible tablet than on the Kindle to appreciate the colorful illustrations.

[Bernadette · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half of the book was fun to read aloud but as the concepts and vocabulary started toward a higher level, the rhythm and rhyme did not work as well. While I liked the recycling lesson, I do not believe recycling should be taught as the main solution to our current waste problem and would like to have seen more of a focus on producing less garbage as well, which would have flowed nicely with the "more, more, more" theme in the book.

[Topaz Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

For young children who don't yet have the schema to understand how landfills run out of space, imagining an animal in its place is a great idea. I also am a fan of encouraging children to see themselves as change agents, especially when they are being presented with bull-pucky.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd kids story about how a symbiotic relationship between a monster and a town goes awry when the monster eats too much of the town’s garbage. This story had an interesting environmentalist message and some bad rhyming. I liked it as an entertaining kids story, but it’s nothing more despite it having many messages about politicians, recycling, the environment, and a rhyme with the word “Zen” in it.

[Kimberly Stafford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cleaver story.

Cleaver story, great story for kiddos. We, as a family really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend it to others.

[Justin Chacko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story

This was a great, uplifting story. Taught about the benefits of recycling trash and also touched on the hazards of overeating, such as too much gas, haha.

[Chloe Rudasill · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was definitely WAY too young and childish for me, but the pictures were adorable.

[Anthony And · Rating 5 out of 5]

My father would read me this book when I was a little boy and at school today I thought of this book came home and searched it up online this is the best book in the world

[Diane Wachter · Rating 4 out of 5]

EBk-M, Nook, @ 1/15/10, read 2/5/20. Juv Fic, Monster, Recycling, Poetry. A cute children's book about a friendly monster, and the town's garbage. 4☆'s = Very Good.

[Christopher Prew · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK

Not quite sure why this was on my kindle, but I'm sure children will enjoy it, although the moral may go.over some of their heads!

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my!

The kids help the Garbage monster "clean up".
Oh no, the garbage monster is feeling bad, whatever can we do?

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun rhymes

This little book was fun for my four year old who is fascinated with monsters and body functions alike. He enjoyed the rhyming words and the children in the story playing on the monster.

[Janette Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Garbage! Monster! Burp!", by Tom Watson, is the story of a friendly monster who eats all of the town's garbage. The town grows and the monster has to eat more and more garbage. The monster burps and clouds of burp-gas hang over the town. The monster gets bigger and sadder every day. Something has to be done! How do the kids save this town and help their burping friend?

The garbage-eating monster in this story has a problem. The town is growing and the amount of garbage is out-of-control. The adults are only interested in the town growing bigger and bigger. The kids realize that the monster needs help so they go to work. They love the monster and they do not like to see him sad and distressed. The kids decide to open a business to RECYCLE the trash. There is less trash for the monster to eat so he started feeling better and burping less. The kid's business is a huge success and everyone in town (including the monster) is happy. Oh, there was one person in town who is not happy with the kid's success...he still has a cloud of monster burp-gas hanging over his head!

I am always interested in reading children's picture books that are available on the Kindle. This book is a good fit for the Kindle. The text and the illustrations are formatted for easy viewing on the Kindle screen. If you want to view the illustrations in color, you can read the book on your Kindle for PC application.

This book is written in a lyrical rhyming text that would be fun to read individually or used as a read-aloud. The illustrations are cute and add value to the story. The best thing about this book is that it teaches children the importance of taking care of our environment and the value of recycling.

[Derek Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the very first Ebook that I read. This book told the story of a town and their special relationship with a friendly monster. The monster lived at the bottom of the hill and helped out the town by eating all of the town’s garbage. This relationship went on for years, until one day the town people hear this cross between an eruption and earthquake. When they investigate, the find the friendly monster had spent the night with a full tummy and burping. The town had grown, and was producing more trash which was more than the friendly monster was used to. The Mayor came off his vacation and told the monster that he needed to eat more and faster. This only made the problem worse. Clouds of monster burp gas hung around the city, and it smelled bad. While the politicians were debating what to do, the children went and played with the friendly monster. They asked why he wasn’t happy. They soon found out that the city was producing too much garbage, and he couldn’t eat it all. The children came up with an idea; they built a place to recycle most of the trash. The unrecyclable part was fed to the friendly monster, and the rest was recycled which made the kids a lot of money. The clouds disappeared and everyone was happy again, except the mayor because the monster only burps in his direction.

[Briana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garbage! Monster! Burp! starts out with a rather nice rhyming scheme, which can be impressive in children's literature. Unfortunately, the rhymes later fall apart, and some of the story goes with them. What begins as a cute tale about a monster that eats a town's garbage soon becomes a moralistic tale that is making a lot of arguments: We should all recycle. The government is stupid. Progress and growth can be bad. Only children have the answers for the future. And so forth. Are these messages right? That may be largely a matter of personal opinion. I think, however, that the sheer number of them can be overwhelming--for young readers, for the short length of the book. Also, children can often spot a message a mile away, and it does not always make them happy. A shower of messages will not more welcome. This is probably a good read for those specifically looking for an environmental message, wrapped up in a cute garbage monster representation.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book by Tom Watson!

The illustrations were creative. It looks as if they are made of construction paper. They represent the text perfectly, which is hard to find in a picture book.

The monster was adorable! Even though he was feeling really sick and full, he continued to eat the town's garbage. Then, the kids found a solution! They developed a recycling center. It helped the town make money and helped the monster not eat too much.

This book shows that kids can do anything they set their mind to.

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I downloaded this for my youngest son, who is 7 years old.
I would put the story in an older age bracket based on difficult words and comprehension of some parts of the text.
It is a book I would recommend for use in school, because it breaks down the world of creating and disposing of garbage for children. I know that our primary school tackles environmental issues in class and this is a good introduction.
I do think that bringing it down to a simpler reading level by changing a few words here and there would make it easier to present to younger readers

[Rachel Carrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I work with a lot of children's books, I've been reading some to see what else is out there. I happened upon this book when I was reloading my Kindle, and I'm glad I did. It's a short story but has creative illustrations and allows the children to be the heroes of the story.

There is an environment/recycling message in the story, but unless children are older, they're really not going to pick up on it. All they're going to see is a fun story with a friendly monster and smart kids.

Kudos, Tom Watson!

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute book with adorable pictures and room for grins and giggles. Very very strong message on recycling. I liked the children's empathy for the monster.

I'm not a huge fan of "kids are all brilliant problem solvers and adults are all stupid." type of books but ignoring that, the book communicated its author's message clearly.

The book formatted nicely when read on Kindle for PC with two columns.

[Bonnigene Cloud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cute story about a town that needed to solve their excessive garbage problem...it was of course solved by the children of the town!

It is fun to read and poem like, which made it super fun for my little niece. Tom Watson's fun imagination gives another way to encourage future generations to do their part to keep our planet clean and recycle.

[Vim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just recently discovered this in iBooks. What caught my attention is that it's for kids and it's free. The story is written in a poetic style and the illustrations are cute. Will be reading more from this author. =]

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful story about a monster who eats the town's garbage. I wish we had one of those around here! This would be a good book for young children, especially for expanding their vocabulary. I can't wait to read more from the author.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book if just reading to your child or to a classroom. It instills learning about recycling, greed, and learning how to help yourself. The illustrations are very cute and simple enough for everyone to get the contex of the story...I will read again.

[Carolyn Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids really loved this book, and I enjoyed the illustrations which seemed to be made from felt and other fabric. Just a different look which I appreciated. Even my oldest came around the sofa when he heard the other two giggling. I recommend.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A folktale-inspired story of a small town which has a deal with a large friendly monster to eat all
their garbage.

[Martha]

Also in Nook Archive.

[Busylizzy111 · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a free ebook ok! Nice drawings but the rhymes sometimes suck, sorry.