My Monsterpiece

by Amalia Hoffman

Overview

A humorous celebration of imagination and creativity that invites kids to create their own monster masterpieces with everyday materials. Perfect for art lovers of all ages!

What’s the SCARIEST, MEANEST, most TERRIBLE monster you can imagine? For one child, every proper monster means a green tongue! Pointy horns! And definitely extra sharp teeth. But what’s a kid to do when the entire family thinks their monster drawings are “cute” and not frightening at all? Maybe monsters aren’t what this child previously thought—and it might just take some thinking outside the box to reveal surprising lessons about fears and perceptions.

Using found objects like buttons, cereal, string, along with traditional paints and fun cutouts, My Monsterpiece encourages children to pour over the details and look around them for materials that can be turned into art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953458025
Publisher:	Yeehoo Press
Publication date:	03/02/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Amalia Hoffman is an award-winning author and illustrator of many children’s books, including My Monsterpiece, which was a 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Award gold medal winner; All Colors, a 2019 School Library Journal Best Board Book; and Dreidel Day, a PJ Library selection. She is also the author of The Brave Cyclist: The True Story of a Holocaust Hero, illustrated by Chiara Fedele, which was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Amalia frequently tells her stories in schools, libraries, and bookstores with puppets and props. She lives in Larchmont, New York.

Editorial Reviews

2020-12-25
An unseen first-person narrator tries to draw scary beasts.

“I want to make the scariest monster ever!” opens the protagonist, planning to give the creature “a long, green tongue” so it will be “a monster masterpiece—MY MONSTERPIECE!” The first spread shows paints, brushes, and the abstract beginnings of the monster. The second spread shows the finished piece of art. What go unseen, though the text mentions them, are the human characters. The protagonist tries to spook Mom with the picture, but instead she’s enchanted: “I love this chubby kitty,” she says. Three more iterations use the same structure: Protagonist draws a monster with a seemingly scary feature (pointy horns, sharp teeth, claws) and fails to frighten loved ones, who all cheerfully misidentify and mischaracterize the images (“Great job painting an owl!” says Dad; “It’s so cute!” says sister). No humans appear visually until the end, and even then they are child-style stick figures, and a concluding twist in which monsters draw scary kids is more confusing than compelling. Due to these factors, the appeal of this book lies in Hoffman’s portrayal of artistic media. Backgrounds are graph paper, patterned papers, and (perhaps) a lilac-painted board; crayons, paints, pencils, and collages are shown lushly mid-use; scissors, fabrics, and pompoms make vivid cameos. The monster-creation plot is fun, but this is more an invitation to make art.

Have the art table and smocks ready. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews