The Monster Detector

Big Foot and Little Foot #2

by Ellen Potter, Felicita Sala (Illustrator)

A Sasquatch and a young boy deal with monsters, stereotypes, and cultural misunderstandings in this follow-up to Big Foot and Little Foot.Hugo is a young Sasquatch. Boone is a young boy. After an unlikely encounter, they’ve become an even unlikelier pair of best friends. After saving up his Monster Card wrappers, Hugo sends away for a special prize in the mail—a Monster Detector! Using the watchlike device, Hugo quickly spots a monster right in his own cavern. Spooked, Hugo heads to school and finds yet another surprise—his friend Boone! Boone announces he wants to go to Sasquatch school, but no human has ever gone before, and not everyone is as happy about it as Hugo. Boone’s first day of school gets off to a rocky start, but Hugo doesn’t have much time to worry before he makes another monster sighting and takes off after the creature. What follows are even more surprises, ones that have Hugo and Boone rethinking what it really means to be a “monster.”“A lovely story of using empathy to work through culture clashes.” —Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Childrens, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fiction, Juvenile, Chapter Books, Monsters

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Ellen Potter is the author of many children's books, including the Olivia Kidney series, Pish Posh, SLOB, and The Kneebone Boy. Her non-fiction book, Spilling Ink; a Young Writer’s Handbook, was co-authored by Anne Mazer

Olivia Kidney was awarded Child magazine’s “Best Children’s Book Award” and was selected as one of the “Books of the Year” by Parenting magazine.

SLOB is on more than 10 state book award lists and was selected for the Junior Library Guild.

Spilling Ink; A Young Writer’s Handbook was a New York Public Library Top 100 Children’s Book for 2010 and a Children’s Literature Assembly 2011 Notable Book.

Her newest series is Piper Green and the Fairy Tree.

Reviews

[Moonkiszt]

Featured in grandma reads session.

This is the second in a series about Sasquatches and humans forging genuine and authentic friendships and finding a way to co-exist. My group enjoyed meeting Hugo (a Big Foot - so called by the humans, and they don't think of themselves that way) and Boone (a human - who Hugo calls Little Foot in response to the goofy name Boone called him. . . turnabout is fair play. . . .).

There are monsters in the world that Hugo and Boone live, and they turn detective to discover the Green monster lurking around. . . they find it. And cannot believe their eyes!

4 stars from my crew! We are on to #3 in this series. A great chapterbook sprinkled with charming illustrations.

[Kelli Gleiner]

(2.5 stars)
Pretty cute sequel to an adorable book. Was slightly scary for small Gleiner, but we were able to push through to the end. I found the ending to be a bit too fluffy, but little guy was very happy with it, relieved, even.

[Jill]

Hugo and Boone are best friends. Their friendship is unique, because Boone is a human and Hugo is a Sasquatch. But when they grow up, they want to be cryptozoologists, which is just a fancy word for someone who is friendly with monsters. So having that in common makes them perfect friends.

When Hugo gets a new Monster Detector in the mail, he is excited to go out and look for monsters, although he’s a little scared too. The unknown can be scary. But then Boone showed up at Hugo’s school, The Academy for Curious Squidges, and they see a real, true, genuine Green Whistler!

Hugo and Boone chase down the Green Whistler, not knowing what they were going to do when they catch it. But together, they weren’t afraid. They realized that they would know what to do when the time was right. Plus, they had each other. Friendship makes any adventure better.

Big Foot and Little Foot: Monster Detector is just as adorable as it sounds. With themes of exploring the meaning of friendship, accepting differences in others, and learning to discern the truth from rumors, Ellen Potter’s charming chapter book for 6-9 year-olds is a fun adventure that can be enjoyed by monster lovers of all ages. And Felicita Sala’s illustrations add even more fun and whimsy to this second book in the series.

I highly recommend this fun little Sasquatch book for early readers and their parents.

Galleys for Big Foot and Little Foot: The Monster Detector were provided by Amulet Books, with many thanks.

[Austin Edwards]

The 2nd book in The Monster Detector series, the fantasy and mystery of the illusive bigfoot, is a tale that is well known among people in the United States. This playful tale gives the reader a perspective from bigfoot's point of view. As a reader, connecting with the human character Boone is the natural reaction in a fantasy book. Mixed with adventure and themes of inclusion and bravery, this story connects well with varying age groups. I believe this story would be beneficial to young readers in the 2nd or 3rd grade as it is a chapter book, contains easier vocabulary than some stories and helps students grow their imagination. By placing the setting in bigfoot's world, the reader recognizes that there can be similarities between our world and another's when reading or writing. Similar characteristics of having grandparents, eating similar food and feeling similar emotions are great ways that fantasy books speak to young readers. Including an activity such as a Venn diagram which explains similarities and differences of setting, themes, and plot can be a great way to encourage students to read and understand deeper meanings of a story, while also providing them with quality written literature. A fun read, Big Foot and Little Foot would go well in any teacher's classroom.

[Gillian French]

I just . . . there are almost no words for how thoroughly I enjoyed this book. I burned through it in an hour and am eagerly awaiting the day when I can share it with my young sons. Everything I've ever read by Ellen Potter has been laden with wit, charm, and gentle reminders that a little acceptance of our fellow human (or sasquatch) beings can make life so much more rewarding, and the Big Foot and Little Foot series is spot-on when it comes to readability, relatability, and humor for the target age group, as well as the parents and teachers who will be reading along. Think Roald Dahl for the new millennium. Can't wait to read the next book in this outstanding series!

[Margaret Boling]

10/15/2018 ~ From a kids' perspective, who doesn't like the idea of having a Sasquatch as your best friend?

From an adult point of view, think about a student who speaks another language coming to your school for the first time; it's so difficult to compare apples to oranges when you don't have a common point of reference (i.e., snuds are like a foot, p. 52-53).

Like the first book in the series, this book can be read at more than one level - an adventure and friendship story for our earliest independent readers. Also, a tale of insiders and outsiders, welcoming those who are different, and disrupting assumptions and stereotypes we hold about those from other cultures.

[Debbie]

This series continues to entertain my 3 kids (10, 6 & 4) during read alouds. (And as I am staring to let them give input for our book ratings: the younger 2 said it was 5 stars, the 10 year old chose 3 stars.)
Personally, I thought the storyline of Boone wanting to join the class for Squidges & receiving some negative attention & discrimination for being a human among Sasquatches was slightly timely. It was definitely something that could have been delved into a bit deeper, but also not the main storyline of the book so it was still an appreciated addition.

All the kiddos cannot wait to start the 3rd book!

[Cheriee Weichel]

Ellen Potter can do no wrong!
The Monster Detector is the second in this series that tell the adventures of two unlikely best friends: Hugo, a Sasquatch squidge, and Boone, a human boy. In this tale the two budding cryptozoologists end up chasing a Green Whistler.
If you have squidges, or little people in your life, do them a favour and introduce them to these books. Read them aloud. You will all love them, but be warned, you might end up with a hankering for acorn butter and blackberry snarfles.

[Pam]

Second book in this series.
The book begins with Hugo getting his prize - a Monster Detector bracelet. He and Gigi explore the cave and see a cavern where the Green Whistler must go. After part one, the two friends - Hugo & Boone - get to go to school together. It's the first time a human attends a sasquatch school. Together they solve the mystery of the Green Whistler.
The other young Squidges get to know Boone as well.

[Ann Haefele]

I did not read the first in this series for beginning chapter book readers, but this 2nd story gave enough background details to allow me to jump right into the adventures. Hugo (a young Sasquatch) and Boone (a young human) help each other to solve the mystery of the Green Whistler monster with the help of Hugo’s monster detector. Also interwoven throughout the story is learning to empathize and make friends with somebody different than you.

[Cindy]

Just as charming as the first—I think I liked it even more. I think I'm going to read it to my 5yo, but we'll read in the daytime and be careful with the scary bits, since the first one freaked her out a little.

[Amanda]

We enjoy Ellen Potter’s books from her Piper Glen series. As a family, we like Hugo & Boone but I’ll say the kids don’t seem as interested in this series as PG mentioned above. Still, it’s a sweet story of friendship, mystery and fun to cuddle up together.

[Brian]

I liked this book more than the first one. My son is 4 and when we were reading the chapter of them chasing the Green Whistler he was legitimately frightened. He had no idea what was going to happen. It was pretty awesome to see that.

[Krystal Brooke]

More surprises in this one! My son loves the cliffhangers at the end of almost every chapter. It's hard to get to a stopping place before bed! This book also leaves me wanting some weechie weechie moths of my own.

[Rocio Almangui]

Funny, quite illustrations. Didn't know it was part of a series so didn't quite understand how the boy and the sasquatch have met...but then I realized I missed the first book and things made more sense.

[Lea]

Got this for my nephew and wanted to read it first - I love crypids and mystery. This is super fun and I want to read the rest of the series. I’m not sure if it’s children’s or middle grade, they’re in school. I loved the adventure and the Bigfoot world building. Very fun!

[Jeanne]

I read this with my boys, ages 7 & 10. They enjoyed it! My 10-year-old struggles a bit with reading, so he and I took turns reading the chapters. He did great! It was the perfect level for building his confidence as he read! The story was cute. We'll be looking for more books in this series.

[Rachael]

A cute early reader book about what happens at sasquatch school when a human boy comes to join the class. This is a delightful read for 1st & 2nd graders

[Beth]

Hugo and the boy are back, this time making a bigger attempt to mix their families, with some ups and downs.

[Sarah]

Cute.

[Lindsay]

My 7 year old said 5 stars and my 4 year old said too scary in one part so 1 star but otherwise 5 stars. We settled on 4 stars as a read aloud.

[Krystal]

Adorable

[Jill F.]

Snore.

[Laura]

We enjoyed the first book more, this had an illustration that scared my 4y old and now he's reluctant to finish it.

[Teddy Pridemore]

It was cool because they thought they found a monster.

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

Amusing.

[Carly Thomas]

Loved this book and loved the illustrations! A good read!

[Fenco Chen]

Lexile®: 660L, 9475W, 100%, 6y4m

[Katelyn]

This was a fun read aloud for my 6 and 7 year old. It's gotten us started reading chapter books at night.

[Nikki Shackelford]

5 stars

Still loving these books. So cute and my son loves them so much. Can’t wait for the next one to arrive so we can keep reading about Big Foot and Little Foot.