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That Monster on the Block by [Sue Ganz-Schmitt, Luke Flowers]

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Sue Ganz-Schmitt

Luke Flowers

That Monster on the Block Kindle Edition

by Sue Ganz-Schmitt (Author), Luke Flowers (Illustrator) Format: Kindle Edition

3,393 ratings

in Children's Prejudice & Racism books

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Monster is excited to see what kind of creature will move into Vampire’s old house on the block. He even starts practicing his welcome growl for the new neighbor. But when the moving truck pulls up, it’s not a greedy goblin, an ogre, or a dastardly dragon that steps out. Instead, it’s something even more terrifying than Monster could have imagined! Monster quickly rallies the other neighbors to unite against the new guy on the block. But what if the new neighbor isn’t exactly as bad as Monster thinks? Join Monster as he confronts his fears in this charming and lighthearted look at what it means to accept others who are different from us.

Reading age

4 - 8 years
Print length

32 pages
Language

English
Grade level

Preschool - 3
Publisher

Two Lions
Publication date

October 1, 2020
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Not Enabled
Word Wise

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Enhanced typesetting

Not Enabled
ISBN-13

978-1542005340
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“This humorous, fast-paced story, narrated with clipped sentences, conveys an important, unsubtle message about the importance of accepting diversity…This entertaining tale about making new friends may also help readers conquer their fear of clowns.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A closed-minded monster begins to broaden his perspective as a group of familiar Halloween characters address otherness and tolerance…With the good times rolling all around him, Monster’s resolve softens, and he starts opening up to making a friend. The proceedings are energetic and fun—with onomatopoeic words and boldly hued digital artwork that toggles between spot illustrations, smaller panels, and spreads.” —Publishers Weekly

“This book also has a great message about diversity. Monster can’t wait to see what kind of creature will move into the newly vacant old house on the block—daydreaming about ogres and other dastardly potential menaces. Then, Monster and his neighbors are disappointed to learn the newest addition is actually a squeaky clown. Clown finds a way to bond with the rest of the neighborhood, and the story teaches empathy and kindness in a silly Halloween setting.” —Book Riot

From the Publisher

When That Monster on the Block crossed my desk, I knew immediately that I wanted to publish it. It’s a book that’s both playful and very important.

On its face, this is a story about a new neighbor moving in. And Monster, who lives next door, is not happy about it, because (spoiler alert!) that neighbor is a clown. Clowns are creepy, right? Monster’s other neighbors all seem to agree. (To be honest, some humans I know have feelings about clowns as well.) But when Monster says uncomfortably familiar things like “There goes the neighborhood!” and “Before you know it there will be more!” we humans are exposed too.

One of the great powers of the picture book format is the simplicity with which a message can be delivered. Through the endearing characters in this story, a light shines on how terribly unfair it is to be prejudiced toward someone simply because of a group they belong to. In this case, the message is direct and honest—but not at all heavy-handed. And wouldn’t you know it, Clown turns out to be a barrel of laughs!

- Marilyn Brigham, Editor

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07YL8Z7LF
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Two Lions (October 1, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 1, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 8056 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 32 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #3,063 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1 in Children's Prejudice & Racism books
- #15 in Children's Prejudice & Racism Books
- #16 in Children's Books on Friendship

Customer Reviews:
3,393 ratings

About the author

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Sue Ganz-Schmitt

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SUE is an award-winning children’s book author, musical theater producer, SCBWI member, and philanthropist. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts in writing for children and young adults. Sue has performed in RENT on Broadway, run a marathon, and pursues other improbable and exciting challenges—as often as she can.

Her books include THAT MONSTER ON THE BLOCK, NOW, I'M A BIRD, PLANET KINDERGARTEN, PLANET KINDERGARTEN:100 DAYS IN ORBIT, THE PRINCESS AND THE PEANUT: A ROYALLY ALLERGIC FAIRYTALE, and EVEN SUPERHEROES GET DIABETES.

Sue has served as a NASA Social Media correspondent, a volunteer for The Planetary Society, and a space advocate representing the Space Exploration Alliance to Congress. She has also written and produced a STEAM video featured by The Planetary Society (The Galaxy Girls Save Pluto).

You can often find Sue at her home in the Los Angeles mountains with her eyes to the stars.

Customer reviews

5 star		77%
4 star		14%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Holly Quinn

Jumping through hoops for acceptance

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

I love the artwork and the concept of monster towns in general, but as an allegory for inclusion it relies too much on Clown's value being based on what he can do for them -- and a lot of it is him buying them stuff. The monsters do eventually reciprocate after Clown has (literally) jumped through hoops and showered them with gifts and fetched stuff for them.

I get that it was supposed to show that Clown was nice, but he could have just been nice. He could have been rightfully frustrated by his unwelcoming neighbors and not gone out of the way to help them 24/7 and he still would have deserved respect, but that's a message that didn't come through, imo.

69 people found this helpful

Helpful

PERFECT FOR HALLOWEEN – AND THE TIMES WE LIVE IN

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020

Because I am assuming you are considering acquiring this book for your child, I will tell you the plot. Spoilers abound.

PLOT: Monster is excited about his new neighbor – until he realizes that it's a clown! Neighborhood meetings are held. Ostracism is preached. But Clown wins everyone over, including Monster. By the time the next new neighbor moves in, minds and hearts have been opened.

TEXT: Small print. Concise. Clever. Second grade and above.

ARTWORK: Loved it.

PROS:
- Good story.
- Encourages empathy.
- Helps children learn about mythological Halloween creatures in a non-scary setting.

CONS:
- None.

BEST READ BY: You to your child the first time. This book should be talked about.

NOTE: I was not far into this book before I realized that this tale was less about monsters than about modern-day race relations. (Or was it? Given the current political climate, the lens through which I viewed this book may not be what the author intended. But it is nevertheless how I viewed this book.) In my mind, this book quickly became not about a clown moving into a neighborhood of monsters but about an African-American moving into a white neighborhood. The fear. The gossip. The instant ostracism. The neighborhood meetings. The horror that this clown would be living on their block. (“There goes the neighborhood!” “Before you know it there will be more!”) My heart just sank; it was painful to read.

On the plus side, everyone does come around, including the ringleader. When the next new non-monster neighbor arrives, he is ready to greet them with kindness.

On the minus side, everyone comes around because Clown puts in extraordinary effort to win them over. He's friendly. He's helpful. He goes around to every home. He leaves presents when doors won't be open to him. In short, he does far more to win over his leery neighbors than anyone should ever have to.

BOTTOM LINE: Good as a Halloween tale. Great as a tale on not being a closed-minded jerk.

(This book was acquired through my daughter's Amazon account and shared through the "share with family" feature.)

48 people found this helpful

Helpful

Art is good but not impressed with plot or writing

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

Art is okay and the theme is okay once you get to the end but it is a bit cringeworthy reminding me of racist neighbors as a kid talking about anyone who wasn't white. The clown moving to the neighborhood and turning out to be cool seems really hamfisted as a plot and the execution was meh. I bet the story would have been better swapping out the unicorn for the clown.

I am probably being a bit harsh but I have read soooooo many children's books to my boy that I can say this is not the worst by any means but about average thus the 3 stars.

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

CYCOLOGISTTop Contributor: Cycling

Why so small?!

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

Loved the graphics, very colorful but WHY can't I enlarge the pages, AT ALL?! I even tried to change the orientation so I could read it on my tablet in landscape mode. Nope! It's not an option. It's disappointing to have to read the pages at 1.25" x 1.75" max size! I read that this was a problem in the reviews, but I discounted its significance, thinking they just didn't know how to enlarge the pages. Huh. Nope. It's a defect in the setup that you can't enlarge, zoom, or change orientation. I'm hopeful that with all of these poor reviews, they'll allow us an updated upload of the book. Even if it was a freebie "First read", it makes NO sense to offer something you can't read, because the text is too small.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Arroyo's Creek

Don't buy! Why?

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

I bought this to share with a first grader I help with remote learning. The double tap enlargement feature only worked for the book's cover. I've had postage stamps larger than this book's pages. If anyone answered the phone at Amazon, I'd ask for my money back.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Trippet

Lively, Fun, Chaotic

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

So many colors! Sure to capture a kiddo's attention. The story is a moral in accepting change and those who are perhaps different than your normal taste for friends, but it does it in a gentle way rather than preaching. It's a subtle, "sometimes different is good, give it a chance," message.

The pages are cluttered, which interrupts the flow of the story and I docked 1 star for that. When I'm reading a story to a child I want to hit each line one after another. I found myself trying to riddle out which line should be next in this book. The good news is the story line is unaffected if one line is read before another, for the most part.

The illustrations, though crammed together, are playful and quirky. Children are sure to enjoy the craziness swirling around. I had fun reading each monster's voice as written - the drawings give gobs of inspiration.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

In my opinion...

My boys loved this!

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

The art work is bright, colorful and well done. The message is spot on and we loved the character choices.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joanne

Original fun story

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is fun to read, not too scary, and shows a cheerful clown who makes friends in an upbeat way with all his grumpy monster neighbors. Children will love it and perhaps learn positive ways to make new friends.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Craig M Sisterson

Wonderful kids story with vivid, fun illustrations

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book hit all the buttons for Miss Five and me - a fun story, colourful and interesting illustrations, some cool characters. While we often prefer rhyming tales, this one still has plenty of zing even without rhyming. It's a cool story of a monster coping with an unexpected new neighbour. Some nice life lessons that don't hit you over the head too hard, are woven in quite naturally. The illustrations by Luke Flowers are excellent, full of colour and life, that really bring things to another level (and the page layout and design too). All around a great kids book.

Cristina M.

Very good!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

My 5 year old son absolutely loves this book and keeps asking me to read it at bedtime. The only reason I'm giving it 4 stars is because it's a difficult read for an adult with a lot of things happening in each page. This is probably down to personal preference and I prefer a "cleaner" text where I don't have to jump from one line to the other so much. But overall a fun book with a lovely message :)

One person found this helpful

Shani

So colourful and fun.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

Such a lovely colourful and fun book.

Nice to read children/ class tho get them thinking about making new friends at school or in their neighbourhood along with change and people being different. Especially when they may have had a long time away from other outside children (covid).

Nice for children to read to themselves and spot all of the fun little pictures and changes e.g. how the vampire house actually looks like a vampire and when Clown redecorates it 、it looks like a clown etc.

One person found this helpful

ceecee

Fun with a good message

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

Amazon Prime First Read - September

One of the things I most miss during the pandemic is browsing in bookshops and looking for colourful stories for the children in my life, hence why I chose this! This is a really good story with a clear message which is presented in a colourful way and is easy to understand. The illustrations are excellent and I’m sure young children will really appreciate them as they are a lot of fun. The ending is really good and makes you smile.

Monique Black

Great for my younger brother

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

Despite usually choosing books for myself, i chose this book because it looked like something fun for me to read to my almost 4 year old brother. He sat very calmly and listened to this story, laughing and joining in with the sounds the monsters made. It was a very good story that im glad i gave a chance. My brother is definitely looking forward to reading this again. Thanks for this great book with a lovely message for kids and adults alike, Ms Ganz-Schmitt.

One person found this helpful