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Mona the Vampire
Look out - here comes Mona! Mona and her cat, Fang, discover that being a vampire is brilliant fun. They plan to hang upside down all night and never go to bed! But when a storm appears as evening falls, even vampires get scared.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
60 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 20, 2012
Mona the Vampire by Sonia Holleyman is another one of those classic children's book I remember being read to me as a child that in later years became a successful television cartoon series. I've chosen to review it as it's a story that inspired my own imagination as a child, but had completely forgotten about until very recently.
The story begins with Mona the little girl being read a scary story full of 'wicked witches and ghostly ghouls' by her father. The following Saturday morning Mona decides she would like to be a vampire, and so with her cat Fang fashions her own vampire costume from the kitchen curtains. Her new vampire obsession consumes her life- she causes vampire related mischief at home with tomato flavoured sandwiches, at school and during her ballet classes, with each adult she encounters saying “Enough is enough!”. Mona's obsession continues until one evening when she decides to take a short-cut home. She gets scared by the bats in the church belfry and the howling wind, and has nightmares about all the monsters that have heard about the infamous Mona the Vampire. The next day she puts all her vampire related things in the bin, and things return to normal until that evening when her dad reads her another bedtime story about... space invaders.
Although primarily a picture book, the story does contain pages with significantly more text than others, and so could be used with children progressing towards relying on text rather than pictures to improve their reading comprehension. The heavy use of alliteration and vivid adjectives with phrases such as 'wicked witches and ghostly ghouls' and 'eyes pop and blood curdle' offers opportunities for children to increase and develop their vocabulary and writing style. As a child encountering the book however I remember it was the attention to detail in the water-colour illustrations, such as the plasters on Mona's knees and finding all the spiders Mona had hidden in the picture that most caught my attention, and so some cross-curricular opportunities involving art, numeracy and drama could also be drawn from the story.
Mona the Vampire is an inspiring story about children and for children that I would definitely use in my own classroom. The story is an exploration of the unending imagination of children and the obsessive fads we all remember having in our childhoods. Although my copy is now somewhat old and battered I would definitely consider it relevant and inspiring to a contemporary classroom.
The story begins with Mona the little girl being read a scary story full of 'wicked witches and ghostly ghouls' by her father. The following Saturday morning Mona decides she would like to be a vampire, and so with her cat Fang fashions her own vampire costume from the kitchen curtains. Her new vampire obsession consumes her life- she causes vampire related mischief at home with tomato flavoured sandwiches, at school and during her ballet classes, with each adult she encounters saying “Enough is enough!”. Mona's obsession continues until one evening when she decides to take a short-cut home. She gets scared by the bats in the church belfry and the howling wind, and has nightmares about all the monsters that have heard about the infamous Mona the Vampire. The next day she puts all her vampire related things in the bin, and things return to normal until that evening when her dad reads her another bedtime story about... space invaders.
Although primarily a picture book, the story does contain pages with significantly more text than others, and so could be used with children progressing towards relying on text rather than pictures to improve their reading comprehension. The heavy use of alliteration and vivid adjectives with phrases such as 'wicked witches and ghostly ghouls' and 'eyes pop and blood curdle' offers opportunities for children to increase and develop their vocabulary and writing style. As a child encountering the book however I remember it was the attention to detail in the water-colour illustrations, such as the plasters on Mona's knees and finding all the spiders Mona had hidden in the picture that most caught my attention, and so some cross-curricular opportunities involving art, numeracy and drama could also be drawn from the story.
Mona the Vampire is an inspiring story about children and for children that I would definitely use in my own classroom. The story is an exploration of the unending imagination of children and the obsessive fads we all remember having in our childhoods. Although my copy is now somewhat old and battered I would definitely consider it relevant and inspiring to a contemporary classroom.
June 19, 2018
The book and tv show were always a childhood favorite of mine !
September 1, 2014
Mona the Vampire, written and illustrated by Sonia Holleyman, was first published by Orchard Books in 1990. It is the first in a series of stories about Mona which formed the basis for the popular Canadian animated television series.
I have chosen this book because it was one of my daughter's favourites for a bedtime story at about age 6-7, although she found the illustrations so graphic that for many years afterwards she couldn't get to sleep unless we made sure the book was positioned so she couldn't see the spine!
It is a very humorous and entertaining story about a young girl called Mona who has her vivid imagination sparked by a bedtime story (read by Dad while Mum is out at karate class - a nice touch!) and decides to become a vampire in the company of her cooperative cat, Fang. The colourful illustrations are great fun and convey Mona's zeal for her new make-believe project as she transforms herself (using Mum's make-up and cutting up the dining room curtains for a cloak!) and trains Fang in "all the important things vampires need to know like always wear clean knickers". By Monday Mona is ready to go to school in her new garb with plenty of "finger-licking fang watering" tomato sauce in her sandwiches. She scares the other children and wreaks havoc in the classroom, the PE lesson and her after school ballet class. "Enough is enough!" say the adults who can see that Mona is getting carried away in her new role. Indeed, things go a bit too far even for Mona when she is caught in an eerie storm cycling home through the churchyard and she has such disturbed dreams that she decides to give vampiring a rest. However her next bedtime story is brilliant too - "but this time it was about space invaders"!
I would recommend this book for KS1 children, who should enjoy the cartoonish illustrations and find Mona's rather irreverent and over-enthusiastic character funny. It could be used for private reading or for shared reading aloud in class. Children can look out for good examples of well-chosen language such as adjectives, adverbs, similes and alliteration (bats in the belfry, wicked witches, ghostly ghouls) to make the story lively and interesting. It could provide a springboard for literacy work around children's own favourite make-believe worlds and characters and could inspire imaginative art-work on the same theme. As an adult this book still makes me laugh and I enjoy the way it highlights the magic of make-believe play and the charm of childhood enthusiasm.
I have chosen this book because it was one of my daughter's favourites for a bedtime story at about age 6-7, although she found the illustrations so graphic that for many years afterwards she couldn't get to sleep unless we made sure the book was positioned so she couldn't see the spine!
It is a very humorous and entertaining story about a young girl called Mona who has her vivid imagination sparked by a bedtime story (read by Dad while Mum is out at karate class - a nice touch!) and decides to become a vampire in the company of her cooperative cat, Fang. The colourful illustrations are great fun and convey Mona's zeal for her new make-believe project as she transforms herself (using Mum's make-up and cutting up the dining room curtains for a cloak!) and trains Fang in "all the important things vampires need to know like always wear clean knickers". By Monday Mona is ready to go to school in her new garb with plenty of "finger-licking fang watering" tomato sauce in her sandwiches. She scares the other children and wreaks havoc in the classroom, the PE lesson and her after school ballet class. "Enough is enough!" say the adults who can see that Mona is getting carried away in her new role. Indeed, things go a bit too far even for Mona when she is caught in an eerie storm cycling home through the churchyard and she has such disturbed dreams that she decides to give vampiring a rest. However her next bedtime story is brilliant too - "but this time it was about space invaders"!
I would recommend this book for KS1 children, who should enjoy the cartoonish illustrations and find Mona's rather irreverent and over-enthusiastic character funny. It could be used for private reading or for shared reading aloud in class. Children can look out for good examples of well-chosen language such as adjectives, adverbs, similes and alliteration (bats in the belfry, wicked witches, ghostly ghouls) to make the story lively and interesting. It could provide a springboard for literacy work around children's own favourite make-believe worlds and characters and could inspire imaginative art-work on the same theme. As an adult this book still makes me laugh and I enjoy the way it highlights the magic of make-believe play and the charm of childhood enthusiasm.
October 20, 2010
Too long for a two-year-old, but Daddy retold it as a zombie story that was quite riveting.
April 5, 2023
Mona tiene gustos bastante peculiares, y quiere convertirse en vampira, el problema es que la gente alrededor no está igual de convencida que ella.
En su momento me gustó mucho la serie animada y por ello quise leer está historia. Vaya que sí es bastante peculiar y como treintañeros no nos la podemos perder.
En su momento me gustó mucho la serie animada y por ello quise leer está historia. Vaya que sí es bastante peculiar y como treintañeros no nos la podemos perder.
December 30, 2017
***Rated by my son***
December 23, 2017
My eight-year-old loves this book. She brings it home from her school library a couple of times a year. It's cute.
November 14, 2015
Probably one of my all time favorite books as a child
January 10, 2014
One of my favourite's from childhood. I loved the quirkiness and it isn't too scary for young children.
July 15, 2023
Story 4
Illustrations 3
Very nostalgic
Illustrations 3
Very nostalgic
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews