Welcome to Monster Town

by Ryan Heshka, Ryan Heshka (Illustrator)

Overview

As soon as the sun sets on Monstertown, creatures of all kinds go to work. So hop on the Ghoul Bus and see for yourself who inhabits this ghoulish town. Dr. Cyclops, Postmaster Skeleton, Frank N. Stein, Dr. Mummy, Captain Witch, and many other monster friends—including a junior monster-in-training—will welcome you with open arms!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466809222
Publisher:	Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
Publication date:	07/20/2010
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	57 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Ryan Heshka was obsessed with drawing monsters as a child, and looked for them on TV, in lakes and oceans, and under his bed. He has always been influenced by comic books, old movies, and classic animation. Ryan is the author and illustrator of Ryan Heshka's ABC Spookshow. His work has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and exhibited in galleries across the continent and Europe. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife Marinda and cat Frankie.

Editorial Reviews

When night falls, Monster Town comes alive: zombies head to work (with carryout coffee and mumbled good mornings), Professor Igor demonstrates test-tube explosions to his pupils at the Ghoul School, and a multitasking giant squid chef "serves the best midnight brunch in town." Heshka relies on familiar-feeling gags (a skeleton mailman being attacked by dogs, vampire bats working at a blood bank, a master electrician named Frank N. Stein), and the book never quite escapes feeling like a catalogue of events and old jokes. Still, his ghastly good sense of color--especially his use of sickly green and blood red--evokes classic horror movie posters, while the sculptural compositions invite lively reader response. Ages 4-7. (July)

Publishers Weekly

“Perfectly pitched for Halloween read-alouds.” —Booklist

“His ghastly good sense of color--especially his use of sickly green and blood red--evokes classic horror movie posters.” —Publishers Weekly

“Heshka has a lot of fun with each scene and provides plenty to look at.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Reminiscent of cartoon styles of the 1940s and 1950s and spooky in a kid-friendly sort of way.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

PreS-K—Heshka seems to have spent all of his creative energy on the color-saturated, full-bleed renderings of monsters going about daily tasks, to the detriment of the brief text. The book is supposed to chronicle the activities of Monster Town's citizens from dawn to dusk, but the single sentences per spread are either hokey one-liners, some of which will fly over kids' heads—"The ghost writers cover the news"—or flat, uninteresting statements. Kids, though, will likely be entertained just by browsing through the acrylic and collage images, reminiscent of cartoon styles of the 1940s and 1950s and spooky in a kid-friendly sort of way. Definitely an additional purchase.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR

School Library Journal