Fight My Monster - Monstrous Official Guide (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

Before this book turned up I'd not actually heard of Fight My Monster, but if you're familiar with its rather better known doppelganger - the ridiculously popular 'Moshi Monsters' phenomenon, you'll probably have a head start.

Fight My Monster takes a similar tack to "Moshi Monsters" (in fact at first glance you could easily mistake this for a Moshi Monsters product, the artwork and colouring are virtually identical but apparently there's a whole slew of very similar products all vying for your virtual coin). You create monsters, train them and then - well - do things with them in online games. You can sign up at the Fight My Monster site for free and start breating life into your own creations.

I'm slightly puzzled as to why we were sent this for review. We're so not the target audience, and even though Charlotte loves monsters, the press release's 'target audience' info lists this book as being for boys (tchoh) aged 8-12 (they obviously haven't heard of my niece who is something of a Moshi Monsters uber-ninja, and would probably love this).

The Monstrous Official Guide from Simon and Schuster gives you lots of inside detail on the monster types, everything from mechanized robotic powerhouses to undead zombie types. Strategic tips, minigame details and lots of monstrous illustrations are the order of the day here.

Oddly, Charlotte got a bit of a kick out of checking out the types of monsters on offer. We'd never let her anywhere near the online game itself hence we really can't offer a fair review of the book (it does not sit well with me at all to think that sites like this exist, and use 'virtual currency' as a method of shilling parents of their real-world cash). On the strength of flicking through this though, I guess it does at least offer plenty of info tucked in amongst its pages so if you are looking to become a Fight My Monster Master or just looking for an alternative to Moshi Monsters, it'll float your boat.

Charlotte's best bit: N/A

Daddy's favourite bit: N/A

(Kindly sent to us for review by Simon and Schuster Children's Books)