Leonardo the Terrible Monster

My rating:

Willems (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale)has written an endearing story about a little monster who isn't good at scaring people. He tries hard to, but he just can't. So he finds the most frightened kid in the world—Sam—and sneaks up to scare him. But when Sam cries, Leonardo discovers it's not because he scared him, it's because of a lot of other things (his brother took and then broke his favorite action figure, he kicked the table and stubbed his toe, got soap in his eyes). Leonardo hesitates, and then decides to become Sam's friend.

Willems' text is succinct and humourous, with a mixture of kid-like humor ("he would ... scare the tuna salad out of him")and adult humour ("Leonardo researched until he found the perfect candidate"). The text rhythm to it, and uses that to punctuate points, such as one word to choose the frightened child--naming him. Some of the text is printed in different colors to provide emphasis. There is also the creative use of a few text bubbles, and on the page where the young boy complains, the entire background is taken up by a run-on sentence.

The illustrations are created with small characters on large pastel coloured backgrounds, so the characters, and the words they say, greatly stand out. Leonardo is a cute, beige, dejected looking monster with pink hands and feet and a blue tongue, and Sam has brown hair and glasses. The illustrations work beautifully with the text, showing Leonardo as having a gentle heart through his expressions and his silly ways of trying to scare people (putting a bag over his head, sticking his tongue out).

This is an enjoyable, endearing story about friendship, following your heart, and doing what is right for you. Highly recommended