Monsters 101

by Cale Atkinson

Monsters! They’re so much more than just that scary thing under your bed. Join Professors Vampire, Blob, and Werewolf, and their trusty lab assistant - a zombie named Tina - as they reveal eerie and frankly ridiculous monsters facts never uttered outside a crypt! For example:

• Monsters love competitive board game nights!
• Favorite monster foods include clam pudding with fish heads and pickled ant ice cream!
• In addition to cauldrons and spider gardens, monster homes often include homemade collages!
• Werewolves hate the sound of vacuum cleaners!
• Monsters aren’t all scary! Try being nice to one for a change! Offer them a compliment!

Full of eye-popping illustrations and a story with nonstop sidesplitting laughs, plus a removable Professor of Monstrology diploma at the end of the book, Monsters 101 will have children - and adults - eager to enroll, time and time again!

Genres: Picture Books, Monsters, Halloween, Humor, Childrens, Fantasy, Holiday

Kindle Edition

Published August 4, 2020

About the author

Cale Atkinson is an illustrator/writer/animator currently residing in Kelowna Canada.
Believing in tea more than sleep, Cale is constantly working on numerous projects. His work can be found in children’s books, animated shorts, television, and games.

Publishers Cale has worked with include Disney Hyperion, Tundra, Simon and Schuster, Doubleday, KidsCan Press, Owl Books, Grosset & Dunlap, GreyStone, Scholastic, Pearson, and Marvel.

Reviews

[Etienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of a encyclopedia of monsters. What they it, what they look like, type of monsters and more. Funny, nothing much original but well done, good illustrations and something small children will always enjoy. Alright!

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kids loved this one!

[Samantha Fraenkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading Cale Atkinson's books with my daughter so we read this ARC together. Amazing and FUN illustrations plus lots of hilarious 'facts' about numerous different monsters that may be lurking under your bed! Definitely one that I will be adding to our library!

ARC Provided by NetGalley

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d recommend this to a child who loves to pore over a book and take time to explore the illustrations.

[Vernon Area Public Library KIDS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Receive your very own Monstronomy Diploma as you soak up facts and tidbits about how to identify monsters, their daily life, and self-care (monsters gotta relax, ya know?). Each page is bubbling with silly monster facts that will keep kids howling with glee.

Reviewed by: Miss Kelsey, Youth and School Services, Vernon Area Public Library

[Cheriee Weichel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It will be released August 4th, 2020 by Doubleday Books for Young Readers.

Cale Atkinson knows his stuff. First he wrote a scientific textbook about unicorns and here he is this time with one about monsters.

This compendium of monster information is delightful. Like Unicorns 101, the format is bursting with important (and often hilarious) facts for readers who want to know more about these elusive creatures.

It begins with a page identifying the Masters Of Monstronomy: a collection of experts in the field. I suspect he must have studied with these wise ones to become such an authority himself.

Next is a checklist for how to identify a monster. Readers can use it to see if the creatures on the next page have any of these characteristics.

Atkinson deals with many aspects of monster life. The biology section includes common and scientific names as well as a cross section of what the inside of a monster looks like. The page on daily life explains how monsters look after themselves, dress up as humans, and have fun. A monster's diet is not really for the faint of heart. At least, this is not my idea of a delicious BLT!

The chapter on history identifies famous monsters. Later on readers will discover what monsters are afraid of and how to get along with any monsters they might meet up with.

In the back matter there’s a Monstronomy Diploma readers can fill in proving they are officially Monster Scientists.

Cale Atkinson's knowledge of monsters is obvious in the comical colourful illustrations. A note in the title verso claims they were created with Photoshop, slime and zombie pus.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young readers might enjoy school a whole lot more if their teachers were more like the three professors in this picture book. The appropriately-named Professor Batula McFang, Professor Blobbins, and Professor Howlsworth, each with his own area of expertise, are joined by Tina the Zombie to reveal the secrets surrounding those monsters and scary things that go bump in the night. Divided into sections, each of which is two pages long, the book covers what makes a monster, types of monsters, how they spend their days and nights, and even their diet, among other important topics. Youngsters will be suitably grossed out by the dietary preferences of these monsters: sewage soup, grilled sneeze sandwich, and an especially savory BLT that includes toenails as an ingredient. Ugh! The book even discusses the preferred habitat of monsters and provides a brief history. Especially appealing, of course, is the Monstronomy Diploma that is awarded to those who finish the book. The word play, humor, and matter-of-fact approach to all of these monsters combine to leave readers smiling in confidence more than shivering in fear. With its colorful digital illustrations, this picture book might be useful in allaying readers' concerns about monsters, and it would certainly be a good choice to read aloud around Halloween.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

We often fear what we don’t know, so knowledge with a bit of humor thrown in can reassure most of us, especially when we find out the object of our fear is often more afraid of us than we of it! Engaging ‘facts’ in 10 ‘chapters’ describe and explain monsters in the most kid-friendly way. The reader learns about their diet, activities, habitats, and even their fears!

Full of silly, colorful illustrations, graphs, side bars, charts, the opening endpaper shows a scientific-looking graph that actually identifies the chapters. The last page offers a “Monstronomy Diploma” for successfully finishing this ‘course’ and identifies the reader now as a ‘Monster Scientist.’ Format lends itself to either reading through or skipping around, but busy pages encourage taking time to scour the illustrations.

A fearful child could be encouraged to identify ‘their’ monster’s attributes throughout this book, and if not found, could make their own little book showing and describing their own monster. If monsters aren’t your thing, you might be interested in the author’s 2019 book “Unicorns 101.”

[Lorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A humorous look at all things monster as the reader has nine questions about them answered and earns their monster studies diploma. The reader will learn everything from what is a monster to how to interact with them safely.

The creative text has some sophisticated humor making the narrative and supporting text more on par for the developmental abilities of older children closer to kindergarten and through 3rd grade. The text is often directly tied to the action of the art on the page. The art medium is not specified, but looks to be digitally produced with a Day-Glo color scheme of green, yellow and orange to enhance the traffic pattern the eye must make through pages which have a lot going on visually. It would be a fun, but challenging book to read aloud to classes or groups and may be better for one on one reading where the child can engage with what interests them at their own pace.

I would recommend this book for purchase by school and public libraries.

This book was provided by the publisher for professional review by SWON Libraries.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Cale Atkinson's earlier Unicorns 101, this is a hilarious non-fiction style picture book. It's filled with Atkinson's trademark art filled with great colour and creatures/humans that make you think of only the best cartoons. I am sure that not every day will be a "wild rumpus" when studying fictional creatures but it will sure seem like it when you read this book. Like Unicorns 101, it is a little long for story time with some of your youngest groups in an elementary setting, but grades 3 and up will surely give the reader big laughs and I could even see this book being helpful in teaching young readers how to use text features (although it was hard to be sure due to the poor formatting that is the result of my older IPAD and this E-ARC). I really enjoy everything I have read from this writer, and this one did not disappoint at all.

[Jill Jemmett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reference book about monsters. It talks about different kinds of monsters, and includes sections on what monsters eat and what they do in their day to day lives.

This would be a great book for kids who love monsters. There were tons of fun facts about different monsters, including vampires, werewolves, and zombies. This would also be a great book to teach kids not to be afraid of monsters. It shows what monsters do when they hide under a bed, and they are actually more afraid of humans than humans are of them.

The book ends with a diploma to show that the reader has completed the Monsters 101 book. This is such a cute book for kids.

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[April Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A boisterous, fact(?)-filled guide containing all you need to know about monsters. The colorful illustrations are teeming with detail, enough to keep a young monsterologist busy for quite a while, and the text includes helpful information such as types of monsters, what activities they enjoy, what foods they eat, habitats, and what to do when you meet a monster- don't try to pet them! Humans are always trying to pet things! Once the reader has completed the book, they'll receive a diploma in Monsteronomy, earning the title of Monster Scientist. Great fun!

#Monsters101 #NetGalley

[Habibeh Razavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun little book, my son really enjoyed it. It's humorous, it's interesting and it has the best animation. It's a 'non-fictional' and 'educational' encyclopedia on monsters which not only amuses them but also addresses their secrets fears; The ones they won't cough up to, but secretly check under their bed for. I would highly recommend it. Thank you for NetGalley and Publishers for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This text-book has everything you always wanted to know about monsters. With revealing secrets, and unknown facts, this book will inform anyone of all ages to all there is to know about monsters. What they eat, what they do for fun, and much, much more. A must read for those who want to be enlightened, and no longer frightened.

[Fahula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids who enjoy quirky nonfiction books will enjoy the busy, detailed illustrations and the silly monster facts, all presented in a wonderfully authentic feeling nonfiction book. Kids may enjoy mimicking the nonfiction features and how they’re presented in order to create their own monster book or a class book in the same vein.

[L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good! A wonderful follow up to Unicorns 101. I laughed out loud over and over. The pictures are so full of fun little details you could just pore over them for hours. My favourite was Barney, or maybe Richard.

[Melanie McFarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monsters 101 is an excellent read for anyone interested in the science behind monsters. Tons of facts and checklists create an enjoyable and interactive experience for the reader. It even talks about how to get along with them. At the end you even get a diploma!

[Cindy Dobrez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young monster lovers will enjoy this bright, silly look at monsters. Kirkus calls it "zany" and that's an even better descriptor. For readers who make it to the end (all of them), there's a Monstronomy Diploma. (Suitable for framing)

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fictional monster book styled like a non-fiction book about Monsters.
Very colorful.
Uses both "real" monsters like zombies, werewolves, yetis, and vampires and made up ones like durgles, werts, and sloofs.
Probably best for people who love silly monsters.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Age: Kindergarten-3rd grade

Receive your very own Monstronomy Diploma as you soak up facts and tidbits about how to identify monsters, their daily life, and self-care (monsters gotta relax, ya know?). Each page is bubbling with silly monster facts that will keep kids howling with glee.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 this is such a fun read! More wordy than what I thought but a feel-good with playful read-through. Definitely going on my to-buy list! I did not think it was too silly for bedtime but you will end on a good howling note which may be too loud for some sleepy readers.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly, unknown monster facts revealed.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sad monster rip-off of the previous glorious UNICORN book. I wanted to like this but all I could see what a formulaic want to be. Sad.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Unicorns. Fell a bit flat. Illustrations will draw in readers. Still a purchase where budget allows and Unicorn is popular.

[Syntha Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you ever wanted to know about monsters

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can see why a child obsessed with monsters may like this book, but as an adult, I just felt it was a chore to read. It had too much going on and to look at it. I felt very overwhelmed.

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn about monsters what they fear and like to eat. Most importantly learn that not all monsters are alike.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Earn a degree in Monsteronomy with the lesson in this class. Fun facts and silly illustrations.

[Nichole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought a bulk box of this book from First Book and I'm excited to share it with my students. This will be great for a Halloween giveaway!

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Take your time with the book.