The Little Shop of Monsters by R.L. Stine and Marc Brown

This picture book is the combined effort of a seemingly unlikely pair– every young person’s favorite horror author R.L. Stine, and the creator of everyone’s favorite anthropomorphic aardvark Arthur, Marc Brown! The narrator takes the reader on visit to the Little Shop of Monsters, where you will find every type of monster that you can imagine. This spooky, but not too spooky, tale intersperses text blocking and illustrations to guide you through the shop. Along the way, you are introduced to several aptly named monsters, with tons of great adjectives and descriptors.

Much of the book is written as a conversation between the narrator at the reader, making this perfect for a read aloud text. There are ample opportunities for the reader to “respond” to the narrator, via questions, comments, and a few well-place parenthetical statements. I grabbed this book off a shelf in the library on a whim, as I was looking for potential children’s books to span the month of October. After reading through it, I am planning to add it to my list of books to share with my nephews and niece. The pictures and descriptions will definitely impress the younger kids, but I think some of the more horror-esque aspects of the story will appeal to slightly older readers as well.