Monster Baby

The monsters in this story look more like bears – with horns – and the dog’s eyes are on the same side of his head. Nevertheless, it is a cheerful story about a small monster having to get used to the idea of a new sibling, and he isn’t at all sure about it. Neither is the dog, Scamp.  However, dad says it’s a ‘good thing’, even though he isn’t particularly pleased that mum’s need for extra-healthy food means the whole family has to eat it too! The small monster is sad that mum can’t pick him up any more, and he notices she is getting fatter. At the hospital, they see a scan of the baby, and the small monster thinks it looks like a ‘wiggly worm’. In his impatience at the length of time it takes the baby to appear, he uses a torch to look in his mum’s mouth, apparently looking for the baby, and this I found rather disturbing. It’s funny, yes, but in a book that is all about the birth of a new baby, this seeming aberration didn’t fit and needed some sort of explanation – or more likely, leaving out. It is quite possible, of course, that an older child might think the baby was somehow going to be regurgitated, but it doesn’t really belong in a story that is basically factual. The baby arrives, and while the young monster feels a bit left out because of all the people who come to visit, and because the baby cries and he isn’t allowed to make noise, he begins to realise that the baby is interested in him, and ultimately he is able to say, ‘I think I like him.’ The illustrations are warm and loving, and the end papers are wonderful – full of all sorts of brightly-coloured toys. A charming story that could have done with a little editing.