Starred review from August 16, 2010
A boy lives near a "regular, ordinary, standard sort of forest," except that along with the usual perils of cliffs, bears, snakes, and wolves, there's also an actual, awful monster with a penchant for scaring children. "That's what people said, anyway," writes Williams (How the Nobble Was Finally Found). But the boy isn't buying it—and his conviction proves to be a powerful defense when he finds himself standing eye to eye with the creature, who seems to live up to its horrible hype. "I'm sorry," the boy says politely, "but I can't believe in something that's not real." Nonplussed by this precocious rationality, the monster slowly shrinks, until it becomes nothing more than a fluffy kitty, suitable for adopting. It's hard to think of two artists better suited to one another. Sharing a surreal sense of logic and elegance, Williams and Swiatkowska convey a mood that's both dreamy and reassuringly matter-of-fact. Swiatkowska (The Earth Shook: A Persian Tale) is in particularly fine form, with wry drawings that range from florid to schematic, and clever collages that underscore the silliness of conventional wisdom. Ages 3–7.
September 1, 2010
Gr 2-4-A boy dressed in an early-20th-century Peter Pan collar, red sweater, emerald-green britches, and patent leather shoes is venturing into a forest with the known dangers of wolves, bears, and snakes, and the unknown dangers of a monster. Williams wastes little time setting up the conflict, adding no superfluous details. Rather, the story is propelled along by the rational voice of the boy, who uses his knowledge of the world to abate his fears. Yet his knowledge of the monster is incomplete. It is said to eat children. How does the boy confront that fear? He does nothing. The trees are sprouting claws and he keeps on walking. The monster is a quilt of parts-teeth, tail, fangs-alluding to the bits and pieces of hearsay and punctuated by gnarly and angular fonts. The illustrations, steeped in a gothic sensibility, recall imaginary bestiaries and are offbeat, crowded, but painterly, featuring various water-based paints, including gouache, and collage of bits of wallpaper and doll faces. In one, the boy measures himself against the diminished monster in a scientific drawing. Finally, he tells the creature outright that he doesn't believe in him, nearly obliterating him (displaying the control he has over his imagination and the danger of nullifying it). Young readers who have imagined a tree a menacing ghost of myriad arms will grasp this story of a boy braving the growls of the forest, but might be disappointed with the conciliatory ending.-Sara Lissa Paulson, American Sign Language and English Lower School PS 347, New York City
Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2011
A boy, confronted by the legendarily terrifying monster of the forest, won't be scared by something he knows is not real. His refusal to believe in the monster reduces it to a scruffy, unintimidating little cat. Swiatkowska's surreal illustrations support Williams's imaginative but meandering text, the logic of which may not resonate with children.
(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)