ReadItDaddy's Third Book of the Week - Week Ending 26th October 2018: "Hello, Monster!" by Clementine Beauvais and Maisie Paradise Shearring (Thames and Hudson)

Our Third Book of the week (and no, we make no apologies for needing to stretch BOTWs to cover 3 PBs at this time of the year) is monstrously brilliant!
Oh we do love subversive picture books. We particularly love them when they feature monsters, and it looks like Thames and Hudson know exactly where to look when it comes to nabbing brilliant picture books that break all the moulds.

France. Yep, French PB authors, comic creators and animators aren't concerned with the mundane and ordinary and us Francophiles know that their book shops and libraries are filled to the brim with the most amazing titles (and once again I really wish my French skills were better, there are so many titles I'd love to be able to read and understand better - but work just as well as pure illustrative works of art despite my rubbish language skills).

Enough beating around the bush, today we're talking about "Hello, Monster!" by genius team Clementine Beauvais and Maisie Paradise Shearring.

"Hello Monster" is the tale of a young boy who is fed up with his mum's insistence on 'making friends' (hooray!). The kid is perfectly happy playing on his own, but Mum insists he goes over and makes friends with the lonely kid playing on his own in the sandpit.

But, the boy's imagination begins to soar - he knows the truth you see, that boy is actually a monster in disguise - just waiting to spring the most horrible trap on unsuspecting kids whose mums may mean well, but don't quite understand that monsters are everywhere!! Sometimes in plain sight or disguised as nerdy kids!

Sure, that kid in the sandpit may look ordinary but he hides a hideous secret...!

The boy's imagination runs away with him in the most fantastic and hilarious way as he imagines what will actually happen if he does go over and try to make friends with "The Monster".

Only Black Panther can save us now (no, not the King of Wakanda, this brilliant panther babe with an appetite for monster flesh!)

We chuckled our way through this one, sinister and evil delight at the Monster holding court underground, making his child slaves tend to his every whim, even looking after his army of pet moles.

Lucky for you lot, she doesn't like the taste of humans.

There's tons of drama in this fast-paced tale once things kick up a notch, but we really loved the depiction of the boy's version of events - just the sort of completely crazy things kids dream up (the kittens on the roof was a particular touch of genius that really chimed with C!)

Utterly bonkers, utterly beautiful, had us cackling throughout and it's easily one of the freshest 'monster' picture books we've seen in ages! How do those lovely French folk do it?

C's best bit: A love-in on the rooftops as the kids scramble to safety, but stop to cuddle a chorus of cute kitties

Daddy's favourite bit: The Black Panther, the coolest panther babe you'll ever meet - well deserving of her fate in this story too!

"Hello, Monster!" by Clementine Beauvais and Maisie Paradise Shearring is out now, published by Thames and Hudson (kindly supplied for review).