Leonardo the Terrible Monster

Written and Illustrated by Mo Willems

Hyperion Books for Children, 2005

Leonardo was a terrible monster…he couldn’t scare anyone.

Eek!  It’s a:  Monster!

Leonardo is a pretty adorable little monster and finds it impossible to scare anyone.  He gets the idea of finding the most ‘scaredy-cat kid in the whole world,’ figuring it will be easy to scare him.  He researches until he finds Sam, then sneaks up on him and does his best scaring moves.  When Sam starts to cry, Leonardo is overjoyed to have finally scared someone.  But Sam protests that he was actually crying because he was sad, after having a particularly bad day.  Leonardo thinks it over, then goes over and comforts Sam with a hug, deciding to be a friend instead of a monster.

Looks like scaring is a good aerobic workout.

Author/illustrator Mo Willems has become one of my favorite authors and this book is an excellent example of everything I love about his work.  The story is simple enough for even young children to understand, yet it doesn’t talk down to its audience.  The message is delivered with the perfect combination of humor and warmth.  Just like in Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, the illustrations are set against pages of solid color, making the characters and their experiences the only element in the story, which gives them added significance.

Some books have special moments in them that enhance the joy of reading them aloud.  When Sam explains everything that has gone wrong during his bad day, it’s presented as a run-on sentence in giant text that covers all of two pages.  My oldest daughter recommended this book to me and told me that when she was reading it to her class during her student teaching days in college, she would take a deep breath and then read the whole sentence very fast in one breath.  I did the same thing when I read it aloud and yes, it is really fun and definitely more enjoyable for the kids listening.   I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this one.

And what did we learn?  What I take away from this book is that sometimes the thing you’re meant to be is very different from what you expected to be.