Frank Rodgers

(ARC was provided to read and review.)

Robert lives in a nice house which looks perfectly ordinary. Robert sees it differently. His vivid imagination makes his life difficult, as he sees scary things everywhere. There's a shark in the bath, something lives down the toilet and little men are under his bed.
His friends find this quite funny and like to tease him. They tell him, there are monsters behind him, which makes Robert run.
On one such occasion he bumps into his grandfather and when he show more hears of his grandson's problem, he has a good advice.
Use your imagination, he says, think they are like big babies.
Already the next day, Robert gets a good chance to try if his granddad's advice works. He visits together with his friends the funfair and they want to go for a ride on the scary Ghost Train. I'm in, says Robert. They are stunned, that's not the Robert they know.
But will his Grandfather's little trick really do its magic or will he be trembling with freight? And what about his friends, are they maybe sometimes scared of monsters, too?

Lovely idea to show children, that most of the things we are afraid of are in our head/our imagination. Why not use the such same imagination to our advantage and think of the scary stuff looking funny or cute and that way turning it into something much less frightening.

All children go through different phases where they are afraid of the dark, of sounds in the night, monsters under their bed, etc. and a book like this one will help them to understand, they are not alone with the way they feel and that they can conquer the night-monsters.
The illustrations are beautiful and there are lots of cheerful monsters in the book, which kids will enjoy to look at.
The book is aimed at children at the age of 4 - 7, but the younger ones will need to have it read to them, as there is sometimes quite a bit of text between the pictures.

"I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened." Mark Twain show less

This was a short cute story about the Pickle family. They have moved into the Hungry Horse Cafe and rumour has it that it is haunted. The neighbours complain that their ghost is stealing things, a watch, a thimble etc. Not only that but the children hear a lot of noises in the night. Their parents search the house with them to show them there is no ghost and they eventually end up in the attic where they are in for a surprise. This is a cute chapter book for early readers.

I think the story show more is cute but considering the age level of the audience (beginning readers) it would have been better if there had been some illustrations in it.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

This is a reissued book from 1989, but it is as relevant now as it was then. Robert has a huge imagination and it usually conjures up scary monsters. He is always looking around for these scary creatures. When he talks to Grandpa Jim about them he gets advice about how to deal with the fear. When Robert and his friends go on the Ghost Ride, he is the only one not frightened as he puts Grandpa's advice to work. A great story to help children deal with fear and imaginary frights like the show more monsters in the closet or under the bed. Great illustrations.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. show less

Another trip down nostalgia lane, finding scripts of school plays I was once in.

This is the story of a group of siblings from an inner city family who, when their house is going to be demolished by the local authority, find a magic lamp and are transported to a pantomime kingdom. Again, it's amazing how much comes back to you.