Eat Pete

by Michael Rex, Michael Rex (Illustrator)

Overview

From the creator of Goodnight Goon, a laugh-out-loud friendship story that perfectly captures the high and low moments of a typical playdate!

Pete couldn’t be more thrilled when a monster shows up in his bedroom. Now Pete has someone to play with! And the hungry monster couldn’t be more thrilled to be there, either. Now he can . . . EAT PETE! But Pete has other ideas. And they are all good fun and quite distracting—things like playing cars and pirates. But we all know the course of playing together nicely never did run smoothly. So how much longer will the monster have to wait before he can . . . EAT PETE?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593856864
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/10/2024
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Michael Rex (MikeRexBooks.blogspot.com) has written and/or illustrated over forty children's books, including Wants vs. Needs vs. Robots, Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots, With Any Luck, I'll Drive a Truck (by David Friend), and the New York Times #1 bestseller Goodnight Goon, as well as the Fangbone series (which has also been turned into an animated TV series). He has a master’s degree in visual arts education (K-12) and worked as a New York City art teacher for four years. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and their two sons.

Editorial Reviews

Rex smartly teases out the will-he, won't-he just long enough. . . . Little readers will be briefly flabbergasted and quite giggly. Rex's clean-lined cartoons are beautifully paced. . . . A silly and surprising picture book that will quickly join regular rotation.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The hairy, snaggletoothed, horned monster who appears at Pete’s window isn’t some misunderstood creature in search of a friend, the kind of character that’s a fixture in so many children’s books. Nope, this monster has one goal in mind: ‘EAT PETE!’ . . . Readers should enjoy this clever tale from Rex (Goodnight Goon) about impulse control and its surprisingly sympathetic monster.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

06/18/2018
The hairy, snaggletoothed, horned monster who appears at Pete’s window isn’t some misunderstood creature in search of a friend, the kind of character that’s a fixture in so many children’s books. Nope, this monster has one goal in mind: “EAT PETE!” Pete doesn’t know that, though, and after greeting the monster as a new playmate, he comes up with lots of ways for the two to have fun. In fact, the monster has such a good time—racing and crashing toy cars, building with blocks, and playing pirates (the monster must walk the plank, and his expression of high melodrama is worthy of classic Hollywood)—that, while he gets dreamy-eyed and drools at the thought of eating Pete, he’s able to delay gratification, at least for a little while. The story ends more conventionally than it begins: the monster apologizes; the two friends hug it out. But readers should enjoy this clever tale from Rex (Goodnight Goon) about impulse control and its surprisingly sympathetic monster. Ages 2–5. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-05-28
A monster looks for a snack.Preschooler Pete is playing cars in his bedroom when a purple-furred, horned, and snaggle-toothed monster peers through the window. Pete invites the monster to play, but the monster's intentions are made clear by the thought bubble hovering over his head: This monster wants to "EAT PETE!" Luckily for Pete, this monster is easily distracted and decides that "playing cars looked like fun." Pete and the monster cheerfully race cars, play pirates, and build with blocks together; each time they switch activities, the monster first thinks about eating Pete and then decides to play. But this doesn't last long: By the book's middle, the monster does in fact eat Pete, the act presaged by a moment when the monster's enormous, drooling face occupies the entire double-page spread just behind oblivious, smiling Pete. But after that? Playing alone is not so much fun. Rex smartly teases out the will-he, won't-he just long enough for readers to assume it'll never happen before shocking little ones with the deed. A happy ending awaits, but little readers will be briefly flabbergasted and quite giggly. Rex's clean-lined cartoons are beautifully paced, the monster looming over the round-headed white boy and then pulling back again and again before a nearly wordless spread in which the monster sits, satisfied, one hand on his tummy before his final change of heart.A silly and surprising picture book that will quickly join regular rotation. (Picture book. 2-4)

Kirkus Reviews