Monster Goose: A Magic Shop Book

by Judy Sierra, Jack E. Davis

A gruesomely funny parody for ages 4 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 A Book of Penguin Poems and the popular illustrator of the Zack Files comes a zany book that has everyone

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Halloween, Monsters, Childrens, Nonfiction, Horror

56 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Beverly]

Judy Sierra's own monstrous rhyme parodies of Mother Goose rhymes.

[Ali]

This is a fantastic book- my girls love it. We have read it each night this Halloween season!

[Ashley]

Grade/interest level: Primary (K-2nd)
Reading level: Fountas and Pinnell, L
DRA: 28
Genre: Poetry

This wonderfully, entertaining book of poems puts a funny and spooky spin on the classic nursery rhymes we already know and love. Monster Goose replaces all the sweet and silly characters with monsters, vampires, zombies and more! A few of the poems include “Little Miss Mummy”, “Mary Had a Vampire Bat” and “Sithery Dithery Dock”. It is a very fun book full laughs as you compare these poems to the original nursery rhymes. Whether read aloud or independently, this book is sure to bring laughs to the classroom!

This book is so funny and cute! I would definitely use it in my classroom around Halloween as a read-aloud since so many of the poems include spooky characters. I would also use it in upper elementary to practice comparing and contrasting. Students can compare and contrast these poems to the original nursery rhymes.

[Lynne Marie]

I absolutely LOVED these fun, clever rhyme and entertaining art.

[Dusty Budd]

Book Title: Monster Goose
Author/Illustrator: Judy Sierra/Jack E. Davis
Reading Level: LG
Book Level: 4.0

Book Summary: A bunch of classic Mother Goose nursery rhymes with a monstrous twist. Some are pretty funny, others grotesque, but all have excellent illustration to make the reader not so scared of these classic characters gone wrong.

Bookshelf Genre: Poetry
Bookshelf Mentor Writing Traits:
Presentation-this book is pages of individual poems that have the tone of the original nursery rhyme but the words are a little different. The illustrations are amazing and would easily hook a young reader because the monsters have more cartoonish faces that tell the reader it's for fun, it's not scary. The author chooses to put the poems in quick stanzas so the reading is easy. For a young reader, I would look at this book and know that if you are trying to make something scary for children, to put the monsters in more of a cartoonish look so the children focus on that after they read the text. Also, making sure your poem is of the same tone of the original is important for the reader to enjoy the text. In the publishing phase, this is so important that your book will be enjoyable and the reader will know the rhyme in order to read your poem.

[Pug]

I liked the concept of taking nursery rhymes and making them creepy. The pictures reminded me of those old "Garbage Pail" kids, which I liked. But the rhymes themselves tended to fall flat; the book tried so hard to make words rhyme, sometimes it took a lame turn, at the expense of the creepiness and/or even coherence.

[Samantha Willis]

This book had a fun twist on nursery rhymes. I think this would be a great book to read out loud to the students around Halloween time, since it is talking about mummies, zombies, goblins and many more scary creatures. This book is not too scary for the students though, but it is a fun way to learn about poetry.

[Kiyoko]

The prose concepts will go right over the heads of children. But funny for adults.

The itsy-bitsy spider
Climbed up the warthog's snout.
The warthog grabbed a hankie
And tried to blow it out.
The little bloke was blasted
All the way to Spain,
So the itsy-bitsy spider
Did not go there again.

[Diana Salazar]

Monster goose is actually pretty disturbing 😳 Cannibal Horner eats his own thumb?! The Corpus McCool rhyme was too much. Head in a cabbage soup… I think this is geared maybe more for 5th graders and older but nursery rhymes seem maybe passé for that age group. I don’t know… you decide what’s appropriate for your child.

[KarenMLISt]

When reviewing the nursery rhyme genre with 1st graders I always time the lesson for Oct so I can incorporate this book. We read the orig Mother Goose from one of our collections (ex Tomie De Paola's) then read it in Monster Goose form. It's fun and not too creepy for the students.

[E]

Fabulous Fun!!! 😁

I wanted to pick one of the rhymes/poems to share but couldn’t just pick one. They are all brilliant! And I laughed out loud many times while reading this super funny book. Well done, Judy and Jack!

Highly recommended for all ages!

[Kristi Killian chaidez]

A collection of twenty-five nursery rhymes turned into poetry, rewritten to feature monsters, ghouls, and other Halloween characters.

[Jason Bloom]

A fun spin on some old classics for kids. Enjoyable.

[Conquering]

Revised Mother Goose poems to add to a Halloween shelf. Would make a good “compare/contrast” knowledge builder to the original rhymes while also a great copy work text to discuss punctuation.

[Tori]

A book of monster-themed parodies of classic nursery rhymes. Some real gems in here. Would be great as storytime filler, a rhyme here and there between longer books. Great for spooky Halloween season, but not necessarily Halloween themed. Any monster storytime or fractured fairy tale theme would work well.
Edited after storytime: I used these poems as filler for my October 2019 storytimes and they went very well. The parents seemed to enjoy them more than the kids, but the poems are short so it doesn't matter much.

[Allyson Smith]

This book gave a Halloween spin on mother goose nursery rhymes. Instead of Mary Had A Little Lamb it was Mary Had A Vampire Bat. I think these would be great to do during October, just to do a fun poem once a day. You can read the real one and compare to the Halloween ones as an activity too. This book would be great for any age and all the kids will get a laugh out of the silly rhymes. The book also has excellent illustrations. They are done with acrylics and color pencil. The picyures match each nursery rhyme perfectly and reinforce the text every time. There is always something fun to look at in the pictures which makes them that much more entertaining. I think this is a fun addition to any classroom.

[Mary Ronan Drew]

Monster Goose (2001) by Judy Sierra. We didn't finish reading this as Elaine didn't much like it. I LOVED it. "Mary had a little bat, it's teeth were . . ." I don't remember the rest, but she takes the bat to school, scares the kids, and gets the school closed down for a week, which is what Mary wanted all along. He-he. And then there's poor Humpty Dumpty who wears sunscreen with too low an SPF and gets hard boiled. Apparently this isn't for the sensitive six-year-old. Elaine, who refuses to accept an unhappy ending and closes the book so she can finish the story the way she likes, didn't care for Little Jack Horner, the cannibal, who bit off his thumb . . . I thought it was hilarious.

[Mother Goose Librarian]

Ghoulishly goofy parodies of classic nursery rhymes, such as "Mary Had a Vampire Bat," "Little Miss Mummy," and "Sing a Song of Sea Slime," are great fun to read aloud! Each rhyme, on a double page spread, is accompanied by a page and a half illustration, as the text is neatly placed in a half of a page. Sierra's poems make a fantastic addition to a monster-themed story time, Halloween celebration, Mother Goose parody recitation or for some just plain old fun! I can't wait to share this collection with my students!

[Dolly]

This is an interesting collection of monster-themed nursery rhymes. Most of them were familiar, although I have to admit that several of them were new to me. I quizzed our girls to see if they knew the original rhymes, but they were only able to recite a few of them without help.

The poems are fun to read aloud, although a few of the rhymes felt forced. The illustrations are colorful and cartoonish. We enjoyed reading this book together. Halloween would be a great time of year to read this book.

[Kristin]

I laughed out loud reading this book. Much of it was above my daughter's head (she's 3 1/2) and perhaps a little too gross for her, but as a fan of the original Mother Goose rhymes, these variations were creative and fun.

Update: We have checked out this book the past two Halloweens and now (2013) my daughter has most of the rhymes memorized. She loves the book and can't wait to check it out at Halloween time. It's definitely a family favorite.

[Whitney]

Monster Goose by Judy Sierra is a collection of poems that puts a fall and Halloween twist on the traditional Mother Goose poetry. These poems are entertaining and quite funny. They discuss a number of thing symbolic to fall and Halloween. Even though I very much enjoyed this book, I probably would not teach a lesson from it. HOwever, I would definitely enjoy having this book in my classroom and reading aloud from it to students during Halloween and the fall season.

[Kelly Tannhauser]

Monster Goose is a book that includes many short stories about characters including werewolves, pirates, kings, and spiders. About every other page is a new poem. This was a fun book that I enjoyed because it includes poems about all different kinds of characteristics. Some of the poems rhyme and some don't which I think it good because it shows different options for creating poems. This would be a good book to use for elementary poem writing especially season, so maybe in October.

[Alex Smith]

1. Genre: Poetry

2. Awards: None

3. Grade Level: 1st-4th

4. I would use this as a fun book in my classroom around Halloween time. This book tells the traditional mother goose nursery rhymes my students have probably heard, however in this book a frightening change has been made to each one. A follow-up activity I can do with my students is after the reading of each nursery rhyme, I can have my students identify what mother goose rhyme the Monster Goose one is based off of.

[JustOneMoreBook.com]

Full of richly detailed, hilariously disgusting illustrations and fiendishly twisted traditional verse, this collection of poems is a year-round favourite.

Listen to our chat about this book on our JustOneMoreBook.com Children's Book Podcast:

http://www.justonemorebook.com/2006/1...

[Alexa David]

Monster Goose is a book that contains a multitude of short stories about charecters such as werewolves, vampires, pirated, kings, spiders, etc. Each page or two is a new poem. I enjoyed this book because it contains poems with different characteristics. Some rhyme, some do not, some are concrete, etc. Monster Goose would be a fun book to use in an elementary classroom around Halloween.

[T Crockett]

The 7 year old loves it. The 4 & 2 year olds want to hear it again and again, though it results in some strange questions and explanations..."What are maggots?" "Why did he bite off his thumb?" I would give it 3 stars based just on my own enjoyment (the monster version of Hush Little Baby is terrific) but the kids like it so much I added an another.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer]

Judy Sierra took famous nursery rhymes and gave them a ghoulish twist. Clever! My favorites are "Mary Had a Little Bat," "There is a Hungry Boggart," and "Cannibal Horner." "Weird Mother Hubbard" is actually a version of an old folktale. Great book for Halloween!

[Jeff Szpirglas]

I just picked this up at a teacher workshop and think it's brilliant. The poems are inventive plays on existing nursery rhymes. Both text and illustrations are slick and macabre - in other words, delightful.

[Jim]

Inventive and funny. We went through this book once just reading the amusing rhymes, and a second time talking about which nursery rhymes and songs they were based on. Well done. Worth reading to or with your children. Or to yourself if you enjoy creative nursery rhymes.

[Joan]

This book is fantastic for boys who enjoy gross stuff! And what boy doesn't?? When reading this you can even make it educational by having the original Mother Goose rhyme handy and reading them both together. Had many laughs together with my boy over this book!