How to Catch a Monster

Chocolate Chip Cookies.

That’s how.

More precisely, a super-duper, yummy tummy chocolate chip cookie.

Oh my. I don’t believe in spoilers. But there you are. You now know the answer to the title of the book. Don’t be disappointed, you’ll still enjoy the story if you ever read it to your kids. And I highly advise that you do. Such a delightful little tale with totally bewitching illustrations. I got so caught up examining them that Trent was finished and begging me to turn the page.

The lovely people at Scholastic have been surprising me by sending me boxes of books. It has been totally, completely, utterly divine for the this little book lover. I thought it would be nice to share some favourites, because who knows, if they pop up when you are browsing a book club catalogue or see a title on the shelf, it’s always nice to have heard a recommendation.

I thought I would start with what has certainly been Trent and my favourite. “How to Catch a Monster” by Christina Bollenbach.

It really captured Trent’s imagination. Lukas is often scared by a monster at night, but decides to catch him by baking cookies, which of course are irresistible to monster taste buds.

I tell you, the delight that literature has brought my little boys as portrayed on his face in this picture warms this book loving mother’s heart.

After seeing the entrapment, Trent was very insistent on baking his own batch of cookies. It hurts me to say that this is terminology he uses to refer to chocolate chip biscuits. This is the only drawback of the book. I have long insisted my children say ‘biscuits’ or ‘bikkies’. It’s the Australian (or British) way.

Anyway, personal quibbles aside, the story is really lovely. Not only does Lukas catch the monster, but they also have a frank discussion about scare tactics and they end up being the best of buddies. And you know it’s good because the story remained in the mind of a three year old enough that in a totally different context, with quite a gap of time between reading the story, Trent has wanted to make biscuits like the boy in the book.

We haven’t read the book for a little while, but today we made (white) chocolate chip cookies biscuits (there was the normal argument over semantics). This evening, I noticed that Trent had retrieved the book for his father to read him during bedtime stories.

So nice.

So. What do you say, biscuits or cookies?

Scholastic gifted me the books, but did not pay for me to endorse their products. My opinions are my own.