This story is about a big scary monster who lives at the top the hill. In this story the big scary monster finds joy in scaring all the other animals that live at the bottom of the hill. Eventually the animals seemed to have disappeared and so the monster wonders what is going on. He decides to explore, when he does all of the animals turn against the big scary monster and scare him. The monster is very upset by this and runs away. After this the monster realizes that the feelings he felt when the animals scare him is how the animals feel when he scares them. They then decide to live in harmony. This story reminds me of the Grinch and the Who's in Whoville. The Grinch likes to Steal Christmas and scare all of the Who's in a Whoville, as the story progresses we find out why the Grinch hates Christmas and why he wants to scare people. After events take place the Who's and the Grinch can live in harmony. Therefore, the story of the Big Scary Monster and the Grinch seem to be very similar. ( )

37 months - O always enjoys a monster book. Cute illustrations and the story was ok. Interesting idea, change in perspective from big to little... Putting the shoe on the other foot so to say. ( )

I did not enjoy anything in particular about this book because it seemed like an average picture book. There was nothing that made it stand out to me or be unique from the rest. I had mixed feelings about this book because I enjoyed the fact that it included animals and monsters, which interests most of the younger grades. I also liked that they had a separate page for the word “Boo!” and really made that page show the scared emotion. I think the children would enjoy shouting out “Boo!” and really adding their excitement and voice to that word as they read. I did not like that the book had few words to it and did not really get into the plot or setting. It was a quick read and left me hoping for me by the time I had finished the book. I did not find anything descriptive or engaging to help keep the interest of the children. I want my students to sincerely find interest in a book and explore exceptional picture books that make them think and this one seemed too plain for my classroom. I think my students would read this then move onto the next one without even thinking twice about it. However, I did like the big idea that the book portrayed even though I had to read it twice to really get what I thought the message was. I think that the big idea is that when the monster was on top of the mountain, he felt big so he had no problem scaring all his friends when he thought they were smaller than him. Then, when he got to the bottom of the mountain and realized he was actually smaller than them, he was the one being scared and didn’t like that feeling. This teaches the lesson about putting yourselves in someone else’s shoes and seeing their point of view. Also, it teaches that you shouldn’t do to others what you wouldn’t like done to yourself because the monster loved scaring his friends, but hated when his friend’s scared him. ( )

Not so scary after all. BOO! ( )