The Great Monster Hunt by Norbert Landa and Time Warnes

Duck is awoken early in the morning by a strange sound coming from under her bed.  It was a pshh pshh sound.  Duck did not know what it was and was too scared to look under the bed.  So instead she jumped out of bed and ran to get help.  Yelling out of her window, Duck called to Pig and told him what she had heard.  Pig ran to get someone stronger than he to deal with it.  When he found Bear, he told Bear that the noise was pshh pshh Bang Bang!  Bear suggested they find someone loud enough to deal with the noise that was being made and they went to find Wolf.  Wolf was told about the noise that had gotten even more complicated by that point, and he suggested that they find someone smart to deal with it.  So off they all went to Owl.  The four animals returned to Duck’s house with supplies to fight the monster, but it is not a monster they find under Duck’s bed!  It’s a tiny mouse snoring quietly with a pshh pshh sound.

This book has just the right amount of tension for young children to get involved but not alarmed.  The build up of the noise from one animal to the next demonstrates the problems with getting news through the grapevine and how things can be blown way out of proportion!  Even if children do not get this lesson from the book, it is a fun comedy of errors for them to enjoy.  The illustrations are very friendly with small touches like Wolf’s record player and Owl’s newspaper that add to the gentleness of the story. 

A great book to mix into a monster story time just for the effect of the lack of a monster.   This is also a great Halloween read for the youngest listeners.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.