DADDY IS A MONSTER...SOMETIMES

"I'm probably a monster daddy," Bweela and her brother Javaka's daddy admits at the close, "when I got monster kids." And that, literally, is what we've been seeing: pictures of the kids misbehaving and sprouting whiskers and ears; pictures of Daddy reacting, and turning into a monster too. Some youngsters may not grasp the connection until it's spelled out, since the kids' physical transformations are not accompanied by words, the incidents are not precisely parallel, and the most developed incident is somewhat subtle (Bweela and Javaka accept an ice cream cone from a lady who reproaches their father for only buying one for himself—after he's already treated them). And there's an incongruence here between the elaborate illustrational style and the simple lesson, and even between the aforementioned incident and the other, very routine instances of nuisancy behavior (a messy room, delaying tactics at bedtime, etc.). But in themselves the illustrations are forceful and compelling, with Daddy's shifts from reasonableness to irritation to glowering anger strikingly put across. So, though it's a weak vehicle for a lot of emotion, the authenticity of that emotion is not to be lightly dismissed.