The Mischief Monster

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE AUDIO VERSION SPECIFICALLY.

The Mischief Monster is the fourth book in Bruce Coville�??s delightful MOONGOBBLE AND ME series for ages 9-12. Iƒ??ve been listening to this series of short books on audio with my girls who are 6 and 9 years old. Each book is about an hour long and dramatized by Full Cast Audio, which means thereƒ??s a cast of readers playing parts rather than just one narrator.

In The Mischief Monster, Edward, Moongobble, and their friends try to return a mischievous monster princess named Snelly to her home in Monster Mountain. As usual, thereƒ??s a surprise twist at the end. The plot of The Mischief Monster is cute and funny (especially when Urk the show more toad gets turned into a fluffy pink kitty). My girls loved the story.

Though Iƒ??ve been recommending Full Cast Audioƒ??s versions so far, I canƒ??t do so for this installment. The voice used for Snelly, the titular character of The Mischief Monster, is piercingly high-pitched. This is supposed to be cute and sheƒ??s supposed to sound like a brat, but itƒ??s so effective that it soon got on my nerves. Even my daughters were annoyed by Snellyƒ??s voice.

If youƒ??ve enjoyed the previous MOONGOBBLE AND ME books, youƒ??ll be happy with The Mischief Monster. I just suggest reading this one in print. My 2.5 star rating reflects my disappointment with the audio version, but my daughter Tali said sheƒ??d give it 3.5 stars. show less

“The Mischief Monsters” was a very enjoyable story that revolved around the big idea of family. The mischief monsters themselves were part of a family, with two young children, and the other creatures involved in the adventures composed an odd little family themselves. I really enjoyed this story for two reasons. First, I liked how the illustrations helped to paint a picture of the characters and plot of the story. Normally most of this would be left up to the reader’s imagination, but I enjoyed that I was able to see exactly what the characters looked like. For example, the story is told from the point of view of a little boy but a reader would not know this without looking at the picture. They also did not explain in depth about show more what type of creature each character was, so a reader could only imagine the boy, the magician, the dragon and the “mischief monster” based on the illustrations. I also really enjoyed this story because of the point of view that the story is told. It is from the perspective of a young boy, who has no magical powers himself but is surrounded by magical, mystical creatures. For example, his closest friend is an older man who just recently became a magician. He also has a pet dragon and stumbles upon this “mischief monster” that needs to be brought home to a magical mountain. It was interesting to see things from his non-magical perspective, as opposed to someone else in the story who had some type of powers. show less

At first, I did not think that "The Mischeif Monster: Moongobbler and Me" would be a book that I enjoyed; however, I was very wrong. Although this book is a chapter book, it has small illustrations throughout. What I liked most about these illustrations is that it explained some of the harder word, such as "plunking down". Although this book was about magic and fantasy worlds, it had some real life struggles that made this book even more enjoyable. The big picture in this book seemed to be the importance of family.

Originally posted at FanLit.

The Mischief Monster is the fourth book in Bruce Coville�??s delightful MOONGOBBLE AND ME series for ages 9-12. Iƒ??ve been listening to this series of short books on audio with my girls who are 6 and 9 years old. Each book is about an hour long and dramatized by Full Cast Audio, which means thereƒ??s a cast of readers playing parts rather than just one narrator.

In The Mischief Monster, Edward, Moongobble, and their friends try to return a mischievous monster princess named Snelly to her home in Monster Mountain. As usual, thereƒ??s a surprise twist at the end. The plot of The Mischief Monster is cute and funny (especially when Urk the toad gets turned into a fluffy pink kitty). My girls loved the show more story.

Though Iƒ??ve been recommending Full Cast Audioƒ??s versions so far, I canƒ??t do... Read More:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-mischief-monster/ show less