"Monster Needs to Go to School" (Book 6 in The Monster & Me™ series) by Paul Czajak & illustrated by Wendy Grieb

Mighty Media Kids   5/24/2016
ISBN:  978-1-938063-74-9
32 pages - Ages 2—8

The fabulous team work of Paul Czajak, author, and Wendy Grieb, illustrator, has now brought book 6 in The Monster & Me™ series to stores and libraries all over the place.  My experience with The Monster & Me™ books is pure joy and entertainment. Great lessons for kids to learn and positive attitudes about life.

Recently "Monster" learned about getting the vote out. That was highly entertaining and highly educational. Great timing since the United States is in full election year mode right now. But school opens for the 2016-2017 school year in just a few months and Monster Needs To Go To School.

Some kids seem to experience back-to-school jitters and some have difficulty dealing with bullies—especially when they're friends.

Monster is dreading his first day of school. His classroom is full of old and new friends and so many fun things to learn that Monster forgets his fears in no time… until he catches his friends bullying. What will Monster do?

"I know I have a lot to learn, but school is strange and scary.

What if I get bullied since I'm blue and very hairy?"

This sweetly addresses the fear of being or looking different from the others in school.

Being afraid of school as a first-time student can be pretty stressful. Also, if returning to school (and we all NEED to go to school!) and you already know there are bullies lurking around the corner, in the next seat, on the playground, well..... it can be pretty intimidating. Learning to deal with these issues can be smooth or fraught with stumbling blocks (rocks, tears, punches, whatever). But when you've a friend like MONSTER then things go much better.

"I know we're friends, but teasing's wrong. It's something I despise.
No one should be ridiculed. There is no compromise."

Paul Czajak lives up to his already established reputation for great text that hits the nail on the head. And working with him with super  bright and vivid characters, emotions, and details is Wendy Grieb who has worked with Paul on The Monster & Me™ series.

The Monster & Me™ series has sold 100,000 copies to date, and is a 2015 Silver Moonbeam Children's Book Award winner for Best Picture Book Series. These are books for the library. For the classroom. For the home shelves. Can't you just picture grand-mama bringing in the ENTIRE set for the kiddies. What a fun time they would have! These would be books the kids pull from the shelf time after time for re-reads.

This would be a great book to have for first-day-of-school reads. Or possibly late summer reads leading up to the start of school.

About the author & illustrator: Author Paul Czajak is a Huffington Post contributor and New York Journal of Books reviewer. Illustrator Wendy Grieb is an Annie Award-winning storyboard artist, whose use of bright colors and inclusive representation in each spread has brought Monster and his world to life in a cinematic way!

Many thanks to Mighty Media Press for a review copy. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.