LITTLE MONSTER READS A BOOK

No matter where she goes or what she is doing, Little Monster has her nose in a book (or she would if she had a nose).

Depicted as a harmless-looking, white bipedal slug wearing a pink dress, Little Monster reads her way through the playground. Whether she’s hanging upside down on the monkey bars, zooming down the slide, or having a spin on the merry-go-round, nothing can tear her away from the book in her hands. When friends, including a Bee and a Butterfly, join her, she reads to them. She reads while she’s running, dancing to the music from a ladybird’s boom box, eating an ice cream cone, and more. “Will she ever stop?” the third-person narrator asks. No; not until she reads the very last word. Then, once she does, a new question arises: “Now what will she do?” Children must turn the page to discover the humorously obvious answer. With rhyme and steady anaphoric repetition throughout, Purcell’s simple, rhythmic text will likely engage young emergent readers; however, adult book selectors may not be so impressed with this slightly underwhelming offering. Some basic concepts are conveyed—such as positions (top and bottom) and numbers (one and two)—with effective visual scaffolding. The digital illustrations, rendered in a limited palette, are serviceable but not particularly interesting.

A bit rough around the edges, but anyone who’s ever gotten lost in a book will see themselves in the eponymous protagonist.