"I Need My Monster: by Amanda Noll

I Need My Monster was written by Amanda Noll and illustrated by Howard McWilliam. I Need My Monster is a fantasy children's story that tells a story about the monsters that live under children's beds. The story is about a little boy named Ethan and his monster Gabe. In the story Ethan is having trouble going to sleep because his monster has taken a vacation night to go fishing. Ethan interviews several monsters hoping that one of them might be scary enough to make him go to bed but none of them fit the bill. Ethan needs his monster! Will Ethan every get to sleep you'll have to read the story to find out.

This is such a sweet, innocent, and childish tale. Amanda Noll made light of a situation that many children can relate to and that's being afraid of the monsters under their bed. I can remember being little and always being scared that there were monsters under my bed or in my closet. The ideal of taking something scary and making it comical and sweet is a great thing in my opinion. This book kind of reminds me of the children's movie monsters inc because they take the fear of monsters in children's closets and make it light and funny. The illustrations in I Need My Monster are great they are very comical looking and enhance the story greatly in my opinion. One of my favorite images from the text is when Ethan is interviewing replacement monsters and a big blue one with a long tongue that remind me of a dog comes out. 

The intended interest level for I Need My Monster is for Kindergarten-second grade. However I believe that it can be applied to children of all ages as far as being used in literature and as an aid to show that sometimes things we think are scary aren't really that bad. The genre of this book is fantasy. Some of the literary devices found in the story I Need My Monster are onomatopoeia,metaphors, simile, and the story is a narrative. I think this story would be an excellent teaching aid for showing students the funny side of a possible fear while exposing them to some literary devices. 

Classroom Application:

Critical Thinking Preliminary and Post Reading Questions

• Before teachers begin reading I Need My Monster to students they should begin by showing students the cover of the book a long with a few images to get them thinking about what the story might be about.
  Teachers should ask questions about the chosen images to get the students engaged and problem solving. Some question that could be asked include: What do you think this story is going to be about?, Do you think the boy has a monster friend?, Why do you think the boy is looking under his bed?, What do you think the problem might be in this story?, etc.
• After reading I Need My Monster teachers should expand on the reading by asking questions that will get students thinking about the future and what happened in the story. For example: Do you think Gabe might take a vacation again?, Do you think Ethan hurt the other monsters feelings by rejecting them?, What person view point was the story told in and give an example to defend your response?, What did you like most about the story, or least? etc. 

Demonstrating Cause and Effect

• Why do you think that Gabe went on a fishing trip to begin with?
• Do you know why Ethan didn't like any of the other monsters?
• Why did Gabe not enjoy his fishing trip?
• Why was Ethan so excited when Gabe returned?

Character Analysis

• Describe Ethan? 
• Describe Gabe? 
• Why do you think Ethan and Gabe get along so well?

Personal Connections

• Teachers should ask students what things from the story they can relate to their own lives. For example they have a fear of monsters, they have an imaginary friend, they have messy rooms, etc.

Sequencing Skills

• Teachers can expand on student sequencing skills by asking students to draw several pictures about their favorite parts of the story and then having them put their pictures in order of how they occurred in the story. 

Summarizing the Story

• The teacher can call on students to help summarizing what happened in the story they just read. The teacher should ask each student to add to the summary before summarizing herself/himself about what happened in the story. 

Theme

• The teacher should ask students to write down what they think the purpose or theme of the story was. It could have been sometimes things we think are scary aren't always so bad, etc.

Interactive Fun

• I think it would be nice if it is possible for the teacher and a counter part to act out the story of I Need My Monster for the class or create an interactive video that might draw them in and then read the story. I found a video of it being done and it seems like something students would really enjoy and it would give them another visual element to relate back to the story. 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwCxW7Nx4Ec