Too Many Monsters

by Eve Bunting, James Bernardin (Illustrator)

A young boy is frightened by the monsters that show up in his room at bedtime, until his parents show him how to get rid of them.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fantasy, Fiction, Storytime, Monsters

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Also known as Evelyn Bolton and A.E. Bunting.

Anne Evelyn Bunting, better known as Eve Bunting, is an author with more than 250 books. Her books are diverse in age groups, from picture books to chapter books, and topic, ranging from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. Eve Bunting has won several awards for her works.

Bunting went to school in Ireland and grew up with storytelling. In Ireland, “There used to be Shanachies… the shanachie was a storyteller who went from house to house telling his tales of ghosts and fairies, of old Irish heroes and battles still to be won. Maybe I’m a bit of a Shanchie myself, telling stories to anyone who will listen.” This storytelling began as an inspiration for Bunting and continues with her work.

In 1958, Bunting moved to the United States with her husband and three children. A few years later, Bunting enrolled in a community college writing course. She felt the desire to write about her heritage. Bunting has taught writing classes at UCLA. She now lives in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have read this countless times to our kids as we put them to bed. Our book is falling apart from so much love. Today, our teen gleefully read this aloud to us. Love this book!

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - Julia found this one herself at the library was excited about it. The cover can make one excited to read it with the little boy's big, huge eyes.
The first page starts with a close-up of the little boys nose and eyes and his mouth tucked under the covers. He talks of realizing there are monsters in his bedroom and goes to tell of each one and what he/she is doing. All of the monsters are cute and/or hilarious, not scary in the least which makes this appropriate for any age.
The little boy runs downstairs to his parents and his parents, instead of sending him right back to his room, humor him and come up with a plan.
I'm not too sure where the plan came from - out of left field to be sure. The Mother, I suppose because she was tired and had to think of something fast, told the boy that monsters are scared of ducks. Yes, ducks. The family goes to the bedroom and gets to quacking and one by one the monsters leave.
I have to note this - Bernardin, if you read this, please don't ever illustrate another man with his leg so high in the air like when the Father was quacking around the room. I get the whole duck walk think but no man should ever have a leg that high in the air. If anything in here is night-mare worthy it's that.

[April Castle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a little boy with a active imagination about monsters in his room. Most kids go through this phase and being scared is not fun. His parents help him overcome his fear by being silly and telling him he just needs to quack to make the monsters go away. Good illustrations and a nice book to use a a writing lesson by showing how imaginative you can be.

Keywords: monsters, parents, scared, night time, little boy conflict with fear

[jyweniverel · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a young boy is too afraid to fall asleep because of all the monsters in his room, his parents come up with a great way to help him come up with is own way to scare the monsters away. A great book for parents who have kids with monsters in their rooms. Allow them the way to scare the monsters away, that way they’re know they are truly gone, and not because you say they are.

[Nick Cherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book would be a great book to use especially for younger children when you are teaching them about make believe. You could do a picture walk of the book asking students to explain whats going on before you read. After you read discuss with students that this book is make believe and there aren't real monsters in their room.

[Scott Stoner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. As a father of 4, I would recommend this book. I think the author and illustrator did a great job of portraying monster in very real and normal ways. This would be a great book to read to young children. The pictures and story go very well together

[Sam Wojtaszek · Rating 4 out of 5]

What do you do when there's too many monsters lurking in your room at night? You join up with your parents and scare them by quacking like ducks, of course! Unless your my Sammy-- who of course would rather play with all those silly, cute monsters instead! :)

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creative Parenting!