The Monster at the End of This Book

Title: The Monster at the End of This Book     
Author: Jon Stone   
Illustrator: Michael Smollin  
Publisher: Golden Books  
Publication Date: 1971  
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
Summary: Grover spends the whole book trying to keep you (the reader) from turning the pages because he is so scared of the monster at the end of the book. Are you afraid of monsters or are you brave enough to see what's waiting at the end of the book? 
What I Think: I hadn't heard of this book (ever) until we participated in the 10 for 10 Picture Book fun in August. There were a few people who had this book on their top ten list and then I ran into it at a bookstore when I was visiting Boston and had to buy it. I had almost forgotten about it until I saw that Starbucks had the code to download the app for this book.

I brought home the book this weekend and Peanut and I read it and cracked up and had to read it again right away. Since we have downloaded the app, he has read the book on his own and with various family members that we saw this weekend. Everyone loved it. The app is so worth it. It's great when Grover is brought to life.

This book is a wonderful book for discussing the reading strategy of making predictions. While we know there is going to be a monster at the end of the book, we don't get any clues about what the monster is going to look like. Kids can take turns imagining what the monster is going to look like or adding more and more details as they go. Then they can draw and write about what they thought the monster was going to look like!

If you're looking for a book about monsters before Halloween rolls around...but one that's not actually scary, then you'll love this book! 
Read Together: Pre-K - 3 
Read Alone: Pre-K - 3 
Read With: Another Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, Jim Henson: The Guy Who Played with Puppets by Kathleen Krull, the iPod and iPad app of this book is great! 
Snatch of Text:  

"SHHHH Listen, I have an idea. 

If you do not turn any 

pages, we will never get 

to the end of this book. 

And that is good, because 

there is a Monster at 

the end of this book.

So please do not turn the page."

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Predictions 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative 
Writing Prompts: Write about a time in your life when you were afraid! What did you do to deal with your fear? Draw a picture of the monster that you thought was going to be at the end of the book then write a paragraph to explain what you thought the monster was going to look like!
Topics Covered: Monsters, Fear, Courage
Translated to Spanish: I think it was published in Spanish but I cannot find where you would buy it or get a hold of it. Sorry!