Hungry Monster ABC

All Ages

Birth - 12 months

Hungry Monster ABC

by Susan Heyboer O'Keefe
Illustration by Lynn Munsinger

Ten naughty visitors from sneak into school, but will they sit quietly at their desks to study? Not a chance! As a young boy tries to teach his unusual classmates (and keep himself out of trouble), the alphabet comes to life in a mischievously monstrous way. Though the lesson starts out innocently, soon the desks get soaked in bubbles, they bring the trampoline into the classroom, and the most difficult letters in the alphabet (X, Y & Z) are visited by an X-ray man, a yeti, and a zombie. This hilarious classroom rumpus is A-B-C-Dee-lightful!

Age: 4 Year-olds | Title: Hungry Monster ABC | Author: Susan Heyboer O'Keefe | Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Why we chose this book

The fun starts with Hungry Monster, ABC before you even open the cover, as your little one will notice that the corner of the book has a bite taken out of it! This small board book is the adorable story of a young boy teaching fun-loving hungry monsters the alphabet. Each page consists of two rhyming couplets describing the next letter of the alphabet. The alphabet letters are enlarged, bolded, and colored so readers can always keep track of which letter they are learning about. Every page is colorful and bursting with activity, while the cute and curious monsters continue acting silly.

It is so much fun to go through the book with your child, learning new letters and words. Although some of the associations are classic ("A is always apple") there are some surprising and very creative ones, such as "W's for Wiffle ball" or X, Y, Z being for "X-ray man, a yeti, a zombie dripping goo." You and your child can pick a different favorite each time you read! The memory aid provided for each letter will help your child learn the alphabet, although they can always expand upon them and come up with their own as well. Once your child has learned the alphabet, this is also a great learning-to-read book for those children who are ready. Finally, your little one will delight in the humor throughout the book, whether it's the monster's fun expressions, the monster trying to eat the wiffle balls, or the teacher, Mrs. Tibbins, scaring the monsters away with homework, grades, and tests.

My four-year-old friend, Talmadge, thinks this book is hilarious! He has known his ABCs for a while now, but he loves to go back through and come up with his own examples for the letters. He thought "T" should be for "Talmadge", of course, and "W" should be for "Wii". He had me in stitches when he debated with himself a good long while whether "C" should be for "Coco Puffs" or "Captain Crunch."

--Audra