In One Ear, Out the Other (Monster Street)

Bud (the monster) has a listening problem. Everything goes in one ear, and out the other. What will his parents do to fix this problem?

From School Library Journal

Gr 1-4–In Another Mouth to Feed, a one-eyed monster with a cat head and birdlike body learns that a new baby is coming. When his father says, “Ah, yes, another mouth to feed,” Harvey imagines the baby as an eyeless, ravenous mouth that would “stare at Harvey as if it were staring at LUNCH!” Text and illustrations depict the baby zooming in to eat the crib, table, toys, house, garage, cat and parents. Harvey screams, “NO! You're eating us out of house and home!” When Harvey's parents bring the baby home from the hospital, he sees that “The baby IS cute.…until dinner time.” In One Ear presents Bud, a hyperactive monster with three eyes, rabbit ears, and a birdlike body. Illustrations exude movement on a spread showing Bud outdoors “climbing, falling, swimming, hiding, shouting, running.” Indoors he sits in the midst of clutter playing a video game. Adults' words literally go into one of his ears and out the other, resulting in the creature missing sox, birthdays, and lessons at school. He is sad to discover that he wasn't invited to a party until his father sends a text message: “We've been inviting you to the party for a week. But you never heard us.” Bud then puts socks in one ear to keep the words in. Each idiom is defined on the concluding page. Readers will pore over the varied fonts and the richly detailed woodblock illustrations that evoke the monsters' dusty, desert neighborhood and magnify the text in these fresh additions for picture-book collections.–Laura Scott, Farmington Community Library, MI. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About the Author

Michael Dahl is the author of more than 200 books for children and young adults. He has won the AEP Distinguished Achievement Award three times for his non-fiction. His ""Finnegan Zwake"" mystery series was shortlisted twice by the Anthony and Agatha awards. He has also written the ""Library of Doom"" series and the ""Dragonblood"" books. He is a featured speaker at conferences around the country on graphic novels and high-interest books for boys.

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