Nelly the Monster Sitter

Humour and wordplay abound in this collection of three light-hearted stories for newly independent readers. Nelly is part of a conventional family and twin to a boring sister. But she is different and independently minded, traits she puts to good use when she offers a baby-sitting service to monsters, who, her dad explains, never go out for want of a sitter. And now, with an ad in the local paper, her phone is constantly ringing as all manner of monsters turn to her for help.

Each story is about 80 pages long and broken into short chapters that are punctuated by large and appealing black and white illustrations. The stories are fast-paced and action-packed, brimming with humorous predicaments and larger than life, good-natured characters. Nellie is spirited and endearing, the monsters may be grotesque or scary to the touch, as are the Squurms with their caressing, spaghetti-like feelers, or live in extraordinary surroundings, as do the Water Greeps, but they all have ordinary concerns and pastimes such as going to the supermarket, decorating their homes or getting dressed up for an outing. That they are so mundane, living lives not far removed from the reader’s own experience, is in part the source of the humour. The writing is strongly visual and exuberant, often alliterative and rich in vocabulary. My only quibble is that the illustrations are at times out of sequence with the relevant piece of text, often placed on the following page with a caption.