Marlow and the Monster

With Halloween just a few days away, “monsters” are everywhere right now, which can be frightening for young kids. My 2 year old nephew Drew has a mask that he likes to wear and “scare” us with, and he laughs when we put it on and “Scare” him back. Yet, last week when I was over at my brothers, my 6 year old nephew put on a mask that Drew hadn’t seen before. Even though the mask was just a plain black cotton mask with eye cut outs, Drew truly got scared. My nephew removed the mask and reminded Drew that it was just for pretend. When he put the mask back on, Drew got scared again. For the entire evening we weren’t able to make Drew understand that the mask was just pretend and that my nephew wasn’t changing. This lead me to wonder if Drew will be scared of all of the trick or treaters on Halloween night.

Marlow and the monster is a children’s picture book by Sharon Cramer that can be used as a teaching tool to remind children that monsters aren’t real, even though their imagination is. In the book, Marlow’s little sister actually is the one who helps remind him that the monster that his imagination has created isn’t so bad. In the illustrations the monster is bright, colorful and cute. If I were to read this book with a child I would use it to remind children that they have power over their imagination and if they begin to imagine something scary, they have the power to change the monster or being into something bright, colorful and fun – just by thinking about it. I was a bit confused by the beginning and the end of the book as they seem a bit detached from the rest of the book where it almost feels like a page is missing and I had a few questions go unanswered.  My favorite thing about the book is the illustrations because everything is black, white and grey except for the monster who is very brightly colored. I found myself wanting to look over the pictures for a few seconds on each page before moving forward because they just grab your attention.

Buy it: You can purchase this hardcover book on Amazon for $10.76 or on the talking bird books website.

Win it: One of my readers will get a Marlow and the monster book!

To enter: Fill out the GT form below before 11:59pm EST on 11/11. Giveaway is open to the US.

 

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This post currently has 3 responses.

  • nannypanpan

    emily- the link in the mandatory is wierd

  • Seyma Shabbir

    Should it be sponsor.com ? There are no products

  • emmy

    So sorry guys! We use somewhat of a “template” for our giveaways so that we can just change out the URL and sponsor name instead of retyping the mandatory entry each time. For this giveaway I didn’t edit that entry because I didn’t plan to include a mandatory one but I forgot to delete it. People who have already filled out that entry will get credit for it but I just went in and deleted it so anyone entering from here on out don’t have a mandatory entry.