THE FRIENDLY MONSTERS

In a pop-up album that provides a strong argument for attaching parental-advisory labels, happy monsters rear up over a hill, spring from closet and cellar and burst out from under the bed to assure a pair of timorous, pajama-clad children that they’re not really scary. Like fun they’re not: Along with startling, in-your-face entrances, the shaggy tree and closet monsters flash tusks and claws, the cellar monster’s head is topped with writhing vacuum-cleaner hoses and the gesticulating bed monster sports a gaping, froglike face. Though the text is less melodramatic—“The monster laughed, and his big green belly shook. ‘I am a big fellow,’ he said. ‘But my friend the Closet Monster is smaller. You won’t be afraid of him. Come on. I’ll introduce you’ ”—and on the final spread children and creatures dance off in a yellow-brick-roadish line, this is likely to give unwary preschoolers heebie-jeebies—at least on the first run-through. Stick with Sesame Street’s more lovable critters. (Pop-up picture book. 3-5)