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MONSTER MUSEUM


BIBLIOGRAPHY
Singer, Marilyn. 2001. Monster museum Ill. By Gris Grimly. New York, NY: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0-7868-0520-X (trade)

PLOT SUMMARY
This zany poetic anthology invites kids to trail behind an undead museum docent. Grimly’s introductory illustration has a human class, complete with school uniforms, meeting the docent. They travel through the Monster Museum and meet all the spooky creatures kids adore, including Count Dracula, King Kong and even Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Along the way, Singer exposes kids to a variety of poetic forms. At the end, there is even a fun-filled “Glos-scary” giving the history of each of the creatures featured. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This book is pure fun. The titled “Monster Museum” poem kicks off the anthology. Then, Singer’s catchy rhythms, repetitions and layouts whisk the reader away. For an example, look to “Man-eating Plants”:

Man-eating plants,
Man-eating plants,
         Look out! They look just like lettuce.

Singer’s humorous comparison of man-eating plants to harmless, everyday lettuce is a repeating technique throughout the anthology: scary versus harmless with a twist of laughter. Perfect for kids! 

An examination of the line breaks throughout the anthology reveal Singer to be a poetic master. By reading only the words at the end of the lines, Singer reveals the themes of the poems.

She also chooses word patterns to hook kids in, like in “Poltergeist,” If your sofa’s shaking / If your toilet’s quaking / If your china’s flying / If your walls are sighing. These easily chanted rhythms will have kids reading the poetry aloud and giggling at the ideas. What kid wouldn’t love a quaking toilet? Kids love the scary, but don’t really want to be frightened. Her word choice and imagery allows kids to explore the spooky monsters, but to laugh along the way.

As an illustrator, Grimly’s focus is on the geometric angle. From the facial features of Count Dracula to the zig and zag of the gremlin tail, the line is the star of the show. Grimly perfectly complements these angular drawings with bold colors and crisp contrasts, such as the orange jacket of Frankenstein set against the green of his skin. For the keen eye, each page is filled with treasures to discover, like the skull’s mouth serving as the top and bottom of the old-fashioned barber shop pole for the poem “Medusa,” who sits in the beautician’s chair with her snake hair.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “From man-eating plants and Frankenstein’s monster to Medusa and a poltergeist, this museum has all sorts of marvelous monsters.”

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY: “Among the season's best creature features.”

CONNECTIONS
  • Let kids choose their favorite poem and then a creature which was not in the book, like the Chupacabra or Loch Ness monster. Have the kids follow the poem’s form to write a new poem for their creature, along with an entry for the “Glos-scary.”
  • Read aloud the poem, changing up the readers, i.e. Let the boys read one stanzaa, then the girls another.
  • Act out one of the poems by adding simple hand gestures and body movements.

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