Baby Vampire, Gulp! (Monster Country Series)

Picture books for 3 years and up, size 8 x 8. Welcome to Monster Country. The children are very happy here . . . and they learn to make awful grimaces very early in life. Babies arrive once a year. Will Baby Vampire make his new monster-parents happy? - Must-read picture books for Halloween - Witches and vampires: captivating characters for young readers - Outrageous stories and monstrously funny illustrations: children will adore travelling in Monster Country

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-In Gulp, when the delivery bat arrives with a baby vampire complete with pointy teeth and a "lovely green complexion," his mother is proud of his aggressive growth while Daddy Vampire struggles to keep his kid equipped with food and stuffed animals, which are exuberantly dismembered. This book goes over the top in its efforts to be daring. Warm mouse blood as a food is distasteful, even if it is meant for a vampire. And readers will be hard-pressed to identify with Daddy Vampire's parental angst. The pictures have a disjointed, cubist combination of line and offbeat coloration to establish an alien monster country. It is certainly dynamic, heavily influenced by its many shades of putrid lime green. In Yuck, a chubby, pink-cheeked child arrives on delivery day instead of a baby witch. While the mother frets over her baby's human tendencies, the father does all of the loving. This is the more successful of the two titles. The sly humor created as a result of the juxtaposition of two disparate worlds is accessible to youngsters. The art has rounded forms, reminiscent of circus balloons, to create the laughable, goofball characters. In both titles, each renegade baby proves itself at the annual birthday bash. While the premise of these stories will appeal to youngsters, overall they fail to deliver.Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Lucie Papineau was born in Longueuil (Quebec) in 1962. She is a well known author in children litterature and a journalist for many magazines and newspapers. Christie Prize Winner,1998.

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