Not So Scary Jerry

by Shelley Kinder, Caryn Schafer (Illustrator)

Overview

Monsters don't hug. Or do they? With a little coaching, can a friendly monster learn to be mean and scary? Through fun and quirky dialogue, Boy and Monster discover a lot about each other, but perhaps even more about oneself. A delicious story of friendship and self-acceptance with hilarious twists and turns along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781946101341
Publisher:	Spork
Publication date:	09/19/2017
Pages:	36
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

About the Author

Shelley lives in Indiana with her Rhode Island born kids and husband. When Shelley is not writing or cleaning up after little people, she's probably thinking about writing (or about how she should be cleaning). Shelley has known from a young age that she wanted to write picture books, but she insisted on going to college for unrelated things. She vows not to get sidetracked again. Not So Scary Jerry is her first picture book. The Masterpiece is her second.

Caryn is a wife, mom, book addict, blogger, Instagram over-loader, and an illustrator. As a child growing up in the Midwest, her passion for picture books started early. She drew constantly, began collecting favorite books, and made small illustrated books of her own. Her love of picture books grew and developed into full-blown obsession. While working professionally as a graphic designer, she began blogging on the side at threebooksanight.com about the continual stream of picture books she collected and needed to talk about. Her growing knowledge (and bursting shelves) of picture books fueled her decision to move from design to full-time illustration. Caryn now lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters - embracing city life, honing her passion for beautiful design, and pursuing picture book illustration in every spare moment. Her art, book reviews, photos, and sketches can be found at smellingoranges.com. Not So Scary Jerry is her first picture book.

Editorial Reviews

"A charming monster tale with an appealing theme."

"Kinder makes superb use of dialogue..."

"cheerful illustrations ... match the story's tone perfectly..." - Kirkus Review

From the Publisher

2017-12-06
A not-so-terrifying bedtime monster, inspired by his assigned child, discovers what he really wants to do with his life in this debut picture book.The narrator, a brown-skinned, black-haired boy with a pet pug, bemoans that his old, scary bedtime monster retired. When Jerry arrives, the green polka-dot-furred, hat-wearing, hug-giving monster is not what the narrator expected. Jerry tries to be scary, pretending to be a ghost, opening his mouth to show his fangs (until he pops his jaw), and slobbering on the narrator's pillow (which isn't horrifying, just gross). "You don't really like this ‘being scary' stuff, do you?" the narrator asks. At first, Jerry protests—he's a monster, after all. But in truth, he'd rather be cooking, painting rocks, or thumb wrestling. In fact, telling the narrator about all the fun activities he likes to do motivates him to make a delicious midnight snack for the boy, who decides maybe a different kind of monster is just what he needs. For youngsters worried about creepy things under the bed, there's little comfort offered here, except that if Jerry exists, perhaps their monsters won't be scary either. Schafer's (A Star Full of Sky, 2017) cheerful illustrations, which feature some crayon drawings from the narrator's perspective, match the story's tone perfectly; they are never frightening. Kinder makes superb use of dialogue, allowing children to read back and forth between the characters. And the stirring "be yourself" message comes through without being overdone.A charming monster tale with an appealing theme.

Kirkus Review