Another Monster at the End of This Book (1996)

This book stars two Sesame Street favorites: Elmo and Grover. All throughout the story, Little Elmo wants to find the monster at the end of the book, and Mister Grover tries to convince him to not turn the page. Mister Grover comes up with all kinds of ways to keep Little Elmo from turning the page, but he is not successful. This story would work well with small children. It would excite them to turn the page. The tension in the story could possibly build up and scare them. If I was teaching younger grades, I would put this book in my classroom library, but I would most likely not use it in a lesson.

This book doesn't add much to its predecessor, "The Monster at the End of This Book," except that Elmo leads the way through the page-turning rather than the reader. Perhaps this was written just to capitalise on the lamentable fact that children's interest in the Sesame Street characters of yesteryear may have waned as Elmo has occupied more and more of the show's focus, but it may also appeal to parents or teachers who feel that there is a slightly sadistic quality about the original book in that it urges readers to ignore Grover's pleas and to push on with the page-turning. Of course, that just means that Elmo is the sadist in this story, but this absolves adults of assuming the role of whispering to their young charges (who may well sympathise with Grover and share his fears if they have not read the book before) that they should go ahead and turn the page anyway, and if you're one of many grown-ups who might be sick and tired of Elmo's cloying cuteness, perhaps you will enjoy having some cruelty to blame him for. ( )

"Another Monster at the End of This Book" is a book where Grover is afraid of the monster at the end of the book, and Elmo who is not afraid keeps turning pages. Grover tries many ways to prevent Elmo from turning the pages, but he always finds a way. In the end, the monster ends up being Grover and Elmo. There is no other monster at the end of the book.

The first time I read this book with my kids I hated it. The more I read it, the more I like it. My kids always squeal with delight before you turn the last page and find there is no monster.

Before I read this book to my class, I would have my class draw a picture of what they thought the monster at the end of the book would look like. I would tell them that we would compare them. I would think they would be pleasantly suprised to realize there is no monster. ( )