PreS-Gr 1--A young girl struggles to escape from a monster of her own self-doubt. The young protagonist is introduced as she draws a picture. As she stares at her creation, a small dark cloud floats towards her and begins to mock her drawing. Frustrated and overcome by the ridicule, the little girl scribbles over the drawing. The monster sticks around and its hurtful comments and overbearing presence make the girl feel small and powerless. She even begins to sound like the monster, yelling cruel things at others. Then one day when the little girl has finally had enough, she discovers something that drowns out the monster's ridicule and frees her creativity. Nearly wordless, this book relies on sharp contrasts in color and exuberantly written sound effects to communicate the young child's feelings of anxiety and inadequacy. The monster begins as a small, dark scribbled cloud, emerging with a "zzzzzpt" from the ether, but it grows in size and volume the more the little girl listens to its hateful words. The cute and slightly comical illustrations keep the tone light while still conveying the child's sadness and loneliness, and the minimal text adds just the right amount of narrative to move things along. VERDICT Though simple, this story provides a jumping-off point for conversations about self-doubt, creativity, and bravery. Recommended for purchase.--Laken Hottle, Providence Community Library

A child with a shock of scribbly red curls is hounded by a monster that derides her. The monster starts out as a little shadow in the corner of her room but grows into a large and pugnacious woolly creature. The more it hurls insults at the girl, the more she believes them: "Nobody wants to play with you!" the enormous monster shouts as she stands apart from other children. Eventually, the child starts to act like the monster herself, pointing and laughing at her peers. When she's fed up with the noisy bully, she comes up with an inventive solution for drowning out its meanness-one that also draws new friends. Kang's moody illustrations artfully convey how toxic negative dialogue can be while suggesting that there are different, creative approaches to quieting down the beast-even if anxiety doesn't always clear off so easily in reality. Ages 3-5. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A little girl deals with an annoying manifestation of overwhelming negative thoughts.When the monster is not cackling or blathering nonsense, it declares she has "a huge head" as she looks in the mirror and berates her comments as "dumb." The girl puts on a hat and doesn't participate, but the monster grows, lurking just behind her, until she confronts it across the gutter. She drowns it out by making her own instruments from household oddmentscutlery, tin cans, jarsand it begins to shrink. Eventually, she squashes the buzzing, fly-sized monster between two pot-lid cymbals"SPLAT!"and she never hears from it again. (If only it were so easy.) The text is very sparse, with far more sound effects than narrative text, so the story depends on the pictures to fill in the gaps, especially in the opening few pages. It would perhaps be best read silently or experienced as part of a discussion. Among her multiracial classmates, the white-appearing girl has a burst of curly, bright-red hair. The monster is an amorphous blob of shadowy scribbles with rounded teeth and flipperlike appendages. Kang's art has the look and texture of colored pencils on ribbed paper, with thick, fluid lines and effective layering. Color sets the mood; neutrals take over when the monster is influentialthe girl's bright hair is literally squashed under the bluish-gray hatand transition to a brighter palette when the girl is in control.It's a successful visual metaphor but lacking in some practical application of text. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.