Monster Chefs

The horribly horrible monster king summoned his four equally horrible chefs."I am tired of eating only eyeballs and ketchup," roared the king."Find me something new to eat or you will find yourselves on my menu!"Trembling with fear, they each set off in a different direction to look for something truly scrumptious. But what, besides eyeballs and ketchup, could a monster king possibly want to eat? A rabbit? A fish? A snake? What one finally brings back may change dinnertime in the kingdom forever.A Neal Porter Book

From Booklist

Everyone knows that monsters dine exclusively on eyeballs and ketchup. So it’s a shock when one monster king gets a hankering for something different. His four monster chefs are dispatched to discover an exciting new dish. The first chef (a hulking green-furred behemoth) is excited to catch a rabbit, until the rabbit warns, “If you eat a rabbit, you turn into a rabbit. That is why there are so many of us.” A fish and a snake likewise talk their way out of being meals with the next two chefs, leading to the dejected group returning to their king, ready to be munched up for their failure. “Please slather yourselves with ketchup!” commands the king. Enter the fourth chef, who has, in fact, brought back a solution: a human pastry chef—truly the gift that keeps on giving. With its repetition and motif of wee animals outsmarting ogres, this has the feel of a folktale, but it is never stodgy, thanks to the adorable, and often hilarious, watercolor depictions of the beasties. Bonus(?): a recipe for Eyeball Cupcakes. Grades K-2. --Daniel Kraus

BCCB

“Little monsters following along at home will also likely clamor to try out their baking skills.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Delicious! Especially when decorated with eyeballs.”

Booklist

“With its repetition and motif of wee animals outsmarting ogres, this has the feel of a folktale, but it is never stodgy, thanks to the adorable, and often hilarious, watercolor depictions of the beasties. Bonus(?): a recipe for Eyeball Cupcakes.”

About the Author

Brian Anderson is the author and illustrator of Nighty Night, Sleepy Sleeps and The Prince's New Pet, both from Roaring Brook Press. He is also the creator of the comic strip Dog Eat Doug which now appears in over 150 newspapers nationwide. He wrote Monster Chefs with his five-year-old son, Liam. They live in Mooresville, North Carolina.

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