Monster Hug!

by David Ezra Stein

From the time they leap out of bed until they hug each other good night, two rambunctious young monsters make the world their playground. And playtime between such great friends is colossal fun, and sometimes earth shaking business. David Ezra Stein?s simple, descriptive text and lively illustrations are full of humor, playing with size and perspective as the monsters play familiar games on an enormous scale. Children will delight in the monsters? antics, and get a kick out of the twist at the end of the story?the monsters might be as tall as mountains, but they?re just kids, after all!

Genres: Picture Books, Monsters, Childrens, Friendship, Storytime, Fiction, Humor

40 pages, Hardcover

First published September 20, 2007

About the author

David Ezra Stein is an author-illustrator whose previous books include LEAVES, winner of an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award. He lives in Kew Gardens, New York.

Reviews

[Roben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Follow two rambunctious monster friends as they go about their day, wreaking havoc on the world around them. Of course when parents show up at the end of the story, we realize these were young monsters having a good time at play - but play time is over and it's time for bed. Always good to end the day with a friendly hug. I can just see the kids giggling over some of the things the monsters do while they are playing!

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two monster friends spend their day playing amongst the city, ocean, and mountains around their home to some hilarious effect. The text is minimal and most of the action appears in the illustrations, and I especially liked the "twist" ending! But somehow I just didn't care for the illustration style so it fell a little flat for me.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and silly - would be good to read with a toddler/preschooler one-on-one so you can discuss what's happening in the illustrations. Wouldn't suggest for a read-aloud; the words make most sense in the context of the illustrations, which are too subtle for a group to see well, I think.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

simple text and heavily reliant on pictures. This book features two monster friends going through their day interacting as normal kids would do till bedtime.

[Destiny Leskovac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Monster Hug! is a sweet tale about two young monsters and the eventful day they have. From when they wake up until they go to sleep, the monsters are ready to play! They meet up, amusing themselves and causing mayhem throughout the city. Although these young beings are monsters, they relate to children today. They play games such as baseball and they make art. Children will find this story seemingly sweet and entertaining as they read about these monster pals and the mischief they get themselves into.

[Ellon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars (I liked it)

The library office added this to our curriculum this year for kindergarten and 1st grade. We talk about how media (books, videos, etc. ) can trigger feelings and practice pausing and identifying our feelings. I'm not sure this book is the best for that... but it does have short phrases so I see why they chose it. It's a really cute book though, especially when looking at the illustrations. It did get some students to mention that they felt scared or sad when they see the monsters destroying building.
I watched/listened to the Tumblebook version.

[Marissa Kiddey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was definitely intended for younger readers. The illustrations were fun and playful and when considering proportion, Ezra executed it well. The color used in the characters were contrasting and in the primary scale, catching the eyes and attention of the reader. I liked that the monsters which lived in each extreme environment had the opposite colors in representation of them.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations are the star of this book. The text is almost too simple to really be a story and we'd have no idea what was going on with the pictures. This one would be good for a kid who loves monsters as a one-on-one read but I wouldn't recommend it for a group read aloud. It was just okay.

[Radha TheLibrarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute!

[Trisha Parsons · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is short and simple and you can get the kids up doing the actions! Monster pose! Monster climb! Monster party!

[Peacegal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kids who can't get enough monsters and prefer books that are short on words and are mostly about sounds and action will get a kick out of this one. If this isn't you, however, there's not much else.

[Rachel B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big win for an easy kiddo read that invites active movement and silly sound effects/voices! Also, I love when books prompt my child to hug me at the end. :)

[Heather Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple romp through the day of two monster friends. Charming illustrations.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has gotten "little boy bedtime story" written all over it!

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My little girl loves this book and has it memorized.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, I loved Leaves and Pouch! by the same author-illustrator. But, I found this book disappointing.

The illustrations aren’t nearly as appealing (for me) as in the other two books, but some of them are cute. I like the two with the monster on the bridge, the two showing each monster eating, and the two where the monster buddies’ elders first appear; they were all sort of funny.

I think kids who either like monsters or who are scared of monsters might very well like this book. Also, I think that the story is likely to appeal to rambunctious young boys.

I just read another monster book and wasn’t wowed by that one either. Perhaps monsters just aren’t my thing.

Oh, except I did like the book Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon.

[Samuel Gillham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monster Hug! is an all-around fun book to read. Reading it out loud to a group of kids would be a blast. Each page follows the pattern of, "Monsters (verb)." So kids can pretend to be a monster and act out the verb being read. For example, one page reads, "Monsters wake up!!" So kids could pretend to wake up with all the rambunctiousness of a monster. It can also teach kids about noun/verb usage while making it enjoyable. I would say it is best used for kids grades K-3.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best for kids ages 1 and up.
Early Literacy Skills: Print Motivation, Vocabulary

From cover:
From the time they leap out of bed until they hug each other goodbye, two rambunctious young monsters make the world their playground. And playtime between such great friends is colossal fun, and sometimes earth-shaking business!

Kid like illustration are really fun, but the words and sentences get overpowered by the illustration. Early readers may get more out of the pictures than the words.

[Jen Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

looking for a bedtime book for your monster-loving youngster? This book might be for you! Minimal text and simple plot make this perfect for the pre-reader under 5. Like most bedtime stories, the purpose of this picture book is to help little monsters settle down for the night.

I was a little disappointed when I realized that this was just a bedtime story. I was hoping for a little more conflict. However, for the right reader it could be a wonderful fit.

[Benjamin Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two monsters meet up and spend the day having various adventures (and minor conflicts) until a swerve in the second half of the book casts their actions in a different light. Captions are direct and simple, only 2-3 words on each page along with a word or two of dialogue attributed to the characters to provide an accent and color each scene. It was fun and worked a simplistic gimmick to good effect. I would have rated it higher if I enjoyed the illustration style more.

[Dolly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of this book, but our girls enjoyed the illustrations and what we did take from the story is that even big, strong and scary monsters have Mommies and Daddies who make them come home for dinner and go to bed early. The illustrations are a bit too sketchy for my taste and I presume that this book would appeal to boys more so than girls.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two monsters go about their sometimes rough and always amusing monsters games and activities. When bedtime comes, they hug and say goodbye. This book made a fun read-aloud because of the simple art. Since much of the story is in the pictures, this can be hard to do. You have to make all the sounds the monsters do make it funnier.

[Kelly Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. The fun, short text and vibrant illustrations grab my daughter's attention every single time we read this book to her. She LOVES this book! It's especially fun because of the voices you can do for the monster characters.

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great storytime book -- you can make it funny, or dramatic, and the monsters are pretty non-threatening. Kids love the scale of how large the monsters are against things like bridges and roads. And then even bigger parents show up! A good opener.

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy Stein's work but this title didn't bowl me over. The text was a bit choppy and the concept unclear. The ending somewhat redeems the title as we find out the monsters who appear so big are "children" monsters playing. Just okay.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, spare text accompany this delightful picture book about monsters and how they play, fight, and hug!

Monster Hug! is colorful and full of never-before seen monster antics...kids will love it! :-)

Used for "Monsters: And Other Creatures" storytime-October, 2011.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great! It tells the story of two monsters going CRAZY using really bright colorful pictures that look like they were drawn in crayons. It also has great verbs that students could act out as the story goes on. Like kids though, of course. Definitely NOT like the monsters in the story!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

They played roughly throughout the book, but the ending is what earned the book the fourth star! The image of the fierce monsters hugging and then holding their parents' (mother? father? not always easy to tell with monsters)paws as they say goodbye and go off to bed? Priceless

[Jamil · Rating 3 out of 5]

also for my nephews, who play like these monsters

[Emily Beeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple words. Cute illustrations. This book is a clever example of how words and illustrations work together to make a picture book.