Review_CHILDREN’S
WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 57
Two big names in children’s books explore an eerie
emporium, filled with monsters of every shape,
size, and appetite (reviewed on this page).
Picture Books
The Queen’s Hat
Steve Antony. Scholastic Press, $16.99 (32p)
ISBN 978-0-545-83556-5
Antony ( Please, Mr. Panda) returns with
a diversion as tasty as tea and scones. The
Queen of England sets off from the palace
on her way “to visit someone very special”
(the new royal infant, readers are meant
to understand). She strides along in her
trademark sensible shoes and coat, a prim
corgi by her side, when the wind blows
“the Queen’s favorite hat right off her
head.” The Coldstream Guards, in their
red jackets and huge fur hats, rush to her
rescue, chasing pell-mell after the hat,
but the wind carries it still higher. In a
series of gloriously deadpan spreads,
ever-growing numbers of guards (and
the Queen) clamber across one of the
Trafalgar lions, pack like clowns into the
London Underground, tramp across the
London Bridge, swarm up Big Ben, and
rise right up into the air before everyone
lands as safely as Mary Poppins, under
their own umbrellas. The book’s charm
comes from the Keystone Kops–like effect
of seeing so many dignified, uniformed
figures descend into distinctly undignified
chaos. It’s a trim, stylish story tailor-made
for Anglophiles. Ages 3–5. (Aug.)
The Little Shop of Monsters
R.L. Stine, illus. by Marc Brown. Little, Brown,
$17 (40p) ISBN 978-0-316-36983-1
In his first picture book, horror maestro
Stine reins in the spookiness—but doesn’t
abandon it, either. “If you think you’re
brave enough, then come with me,” goads
an unseen narrator before revealing a pet
shop filled with monsters. A boy and girl
stare at the creatures in the window: “I hope
they don’t break the glass, jump out and
EAT you. (Would that spoil your day?)”
After the kids enter the store, Stine con-
tinues to tweak readers with playfully
teasing parenthetical questions and com-
ments. The narrator advises against shaking
hands with a warty, green monster named
Snacker, who snacks all day. Why? “Do
you know his favorite snack food? (That’s
right. Hands).” Working in mixed media,
Brown humorously matches the creatures’
names and attributes to their physical
appearances, creating a raucous crew of
horned, clawed, fanged, bug-eyed,
winged, scaly, and furry monsters in an
array of patterns and colors. Readers
looking for friendly, cuddly monsters
should shop elsewhere—as Stine omi-
nously reminds readers, “When you
come to the Little Shop of Monsters, you
don’t choose a monster... a monster
chooses YOU!” Ages 3–6. (Aug.)
The Great and Mighty Nikko!
Xavier Garza. Cinco Puntos (Consortium,
dist.), $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-935955-82-5
Garza (Maximilian and the Mystery of the
Guardian Angel) once again draws on the
culture of Mexico’s lucha libre wrestling in
this bilingual counting book. Drawing in
an unabashedly florid cartoon style, Garza
shows a boy named Nikko playing with
costumed figurines on his bed. “Those
are just toys, silly,” his mother says dismissively. “But it’s true!” Nikko counters.
“They’ve turned my bed into a lucha libre
ring.” The caped, batlike first wrestler
climbs into the ring: “Mom, there’s a luchador
wrestling on my bed. One!” Another
wrestler with a mask like that of an Aztec
god holds out his arms to challenge the
first: “Mom, now there are two luchadores
wrestling on my bed.” Nikko offers sim-
ilar exclamations as additional wrestlers
join the fray, reacting to each other with
marvelously exaggerated snarls. Of course
Nikko, dressed in his own luchador cos-
tume, defeats them all: “Now there are
ten luchadores wrestling on my bed!”
While the counting format hobbles the
story’s energy rather than driving it, the
bilingual text and high-octane action give
this work bonus points. Ages 3–7. (Aug.)
; The Wonderful Things You
Will Be: A Growing-Up Poem
Emily Winfield Martin. Random, $17.99
(36p) ISBN 978-0-385-37671-6
The wealth of possibilities contained
within even the tiniest child is the subject of Martin’s (Day Dreamers) love
letter from parent to offspring: “When
you were too small/ To tell me hello,/ I
knew you were someone/ I wanted to
know.” This potential can be seen in
everything children do, from working
in a garden (“Will you learn what it
means/ To help things to grow?”) to
bandaging a toy bear. The book concludes with a double gatefold, drawn as
a proscenium-style curtain, that reveals a
group of eccentrically costumed children
(a robot, a pencil, a log) to represent the
idea of becoming “anybody/ That you’d
like to be.” Martin’s characters generally
exhibit a preternatural sense of self-possession, but this book’s subject matter
adds another layer of meaning to the
poised poker faces on display. Her children are so serious (even when swinging
on a swing) and so unflappable (even
when tailoring a pair of pants for a
squirrel) that they convey not just hope
for the future, but a sense of manifest
destiny. Ages 3–7. Agent: Brenda Bowen,
Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Aug.)
The Bewundering World of
Bewilderbeests
Bailey Fort. Fortify Books (bewundering-
world.com), $4.98 e-book (38p) ISBN 978-0-
9940688-1-1
First-time author-illustrator Fort imagines a land “Behind the high seas,/ A-way
to the east,” populated by hybrid creatures
called Bewilderbeasts. In rhyming verse,
she introduces 13 such animals one by
one; “Jabberwocky”-style portmanteaus
are many (the “snaggle-toofed banders-noot” can’t help but recall Carroll’s
“frumious bandersnatch”) as are word-play- and pun-driven creations like the
“early-morning meadowsnark,” a
Children’s/ YA
