The Garbage Monster

by Joni Sensel

When Jo neglects to take out the trash, the garbage comes to life, but as she begins to sort and recycle its parts, the creature disappears.

Genres: Monsters

24 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2001

About the author

Joni Sensel is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction titles for adults and five novels for young readers from Macmillan imprints, as well as two picture books. Her fiction titles include a Junior Library Guild selection, a Center for Children’s Books “Best Book,” a Henry Bergh Honor title, and a finalist for several other awards. Her adventures have taken her to the corners of 15 countries, the heights of the Cascade Mountains, the length of an Irish marathon, and the depths of love. She lives at the knees of Mt. Rainier in Washington State with a puppy who came into her life as a birthday gift that reflected afterlife influence. Sign up for her creativity newsletter on her website!

Reviews

[Keegan Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

My three-year-old likes this book a lot. He doesn't quite "get" the concept of recycling that's the solution to the story, obviously. However, he loves monsters and he likes that the girl "beats" the monster, so he's asked to read it quite a number of times since we got it from the library. And it's a good introduction to teaching about cleaning up waste properly, so it might be good to use for a lesson on that in the future.

[Michelle Henry]

This book by Joni Sensel describes a story of a little girl who refuses to take the trash out. One day her stubbornness lead to the trash turn into the garbage monster! To stop the monster from turning everything into junk, the little girl decided to take old toys and clothes that weren't junk and give them to people in need. This story emphasizes the importance of recycling and giving to those in need.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cute rhyming book is a fun way to introduce reduce, reuse, recycle to children. The story includes a "secret message." The end papers include a diagram of the garbage monster's composition, habitat and habits.

[The Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eco-tale of how you can lessen your garbage out-put by paying more attention to what you throw away. Typical themes of recycling and reusing. Fun little rhyme that is not offensively preachy.

Silly but fun illustrations.