soup of the day: mostly monsterly by tammi sauer and scott magoon!

Hey hey!

Are you in the mood for a little Monster Mayhem?

You’ve come to the right place. Today, we’re celebrating the official release of Mostly Monsterly (Simon & Schuster, 2010) by Tammi Sauer and Scott Magoon! You know what that means, don’t you?

We can growl, and lurch, and create major league havoc to our heart’s content, a.k.a, be ourselves! For those of you who happen to look a little too sweet and respectable on the outside, feel free to don any one of these monster-friendly masks for the duration of the party:

In this, the third of Tammi’s picture books (following the hugely successful Cowboy Camp and Chicken Dance), we have a bug-eyed, pointy-earred, furry fanged little monster called Bernadette.

She certainly looks monsterly, but inside, she’s harboring a deep, dark secret: a sweet streak.

Sometimes, she likes to pick flowers (gasp!), or pet kittens (oh, the horror), or even bake (nothing wrong with that).

So when she goes to Monster Academy, she has a little trouble fitting in.

While everyone else is growling, lurching, and focusing on destruction, Bernadette sings and calls for a group hug. Of course, the other monsters are appalled, so Bernadette must pull out her Secret Weapon: *treats* — more specifically, cupcakes with sprinkles!!

Eeeeee! Yes, yes yes! Brilliant Bernadette!

But no, it doesn’t work. The other monsters think cupcakes are gross (sacrilege)! Can Bernadette come up with another plan to win her classmates over, and still remain true to herself?

This simply told, perfectly paced, quirky social acceptance tale with a beastly twist will delight young readers who march to the tune of their own drummers, suggesting that with a little ingenuity, they can make their differences work to their advantage. Bernadette doesn’t have to compromise her “niceness” or quash her giving spirit. She just tweaks her final gesture a little to conform to expected behavior.

Magoon’s lovable alien-like monsters, with their pointy heads and feet, preponderance of eyeballs, weird shapes and fetching colors, strike just the right balance between comical and scary, effectively underscoring the theme of individual differences. Their gestures and expressions are deliciously captivating, even endearing, with their requests for fried snail goo and fish heads dipped in hot sauce. But in the end, our hearts go out to little Bernadette, who bakes a mean cupcake and proves that when it comes to “taming” monsters, she can hold her own. This wholly satisfying story will be embraced by any child or adult struggling with, “who I really am” vs. “what others expect me to be.”

And now, *rubs hands together*, it’s time for our celebration soup! Ooo-whee! But we had fun throwing this concoction together. Got to use up all the surplus mucus, dead bugs, hairballs, and pinky toe clippings laying around the house. Have no fear, friends, it’s FDA approved, snot dangerous at all. Those of you in a particularly monsterly mood, feel free to sneeze right into the bowl. Those in touch with your sweet side, smell the flowers before slurping. Let’s file our fangs and bang our magspoons in honor of Scott and Tammi, Master and Mistress of Mayhem! Congratulations!

Today’s Special: Monster Mush (garnished with incisors and mouse turd).

To go with your soup, a little finger food,

jojoebi/flickr

and some monster ramen:

oskay/flickr

For dessert, cupcakes with sprinkles, of course:

ClaudOnLake/flickr

Rainbow cupcake by breeleed/flickr.

and if you’re turned off by all that sweetness and light, gnaw on an eyeball (we aim to please):

Kyrie416/flickr

Alrighty, then. Time to stomp down to your local indie or click through to your fave online bookseller to score your very own copy of Mostly Monsterly. This book deserves your most imaginative shopping costume. If you go to a bricks and mortar store, seize this rare opportunity to reveal your hidden eyeballs, polish your horns and scales, die your hair green. Be sure to lurch for your book, then growl at all the salesclerks. Won’t it be fun bringing out the monster in them?

MOSTLY MONSTERLY by Tammi Sauer
illustrated by Scott Magoon
published by Simon & Schuster, August 2010
Picture book for ages 4-8, 40 pp.
Cool themes: Social dynamics, acceptance, self actualization, individuality, classroom interactions, friendship, humor, inclusion, conformity
On shelves now!

♥ Be sure to check out Tammi Sauer’s official website, where you can learn more about Mostly Monsterly and find a recipe for Cupcakes with Sprinkles!

♥ Also visit Scott Magoon’s totally fiend fun website.

♥ Look! There’s a Mostly Monsterly store at CafePress! Check out the cool shirts for adults and kids. Tote bags, too!

♥ The official book trailer is here.

♥ Cool blog review at Miss Print.

Oh, wait. Before you go, don’t forget to take off your mask!

You’re not wearing a mask? Gulp.

*runs away screaming*

*Spreads posted by permission of illustrator, text copyright © 2010 Tammi Sauer, illustrations © 2010 Scott Magoon, published by Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.

*Alien robot masks by brechtbug/flickr.