M is for Monster

"M is for Monster" Book Display

As you may already know, this year is the 50th Anniversary of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. A wonderful local art museum in our area is celebrating 50 years of works by Sendak with an exhibit and lots of great programs beginning in early November, so we decided to join the fun with our own wild rumpus at the library.

This past Saturday we hosted our "Monster Madness" event. Since we were making monster cupcakes and decorating monster pumpkins and gourds, we asked families to register. We had over 35 kiddos of all ages from under 1 to 12 (plus their grown-ups). Here is a quick rundown of the plan:

Of course we started with a reading of the special occasion book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

We used our imaginations to go on a monster hunt (rather than the usual bear hunt). I love this version that Michael Rosen performed, so I used this as my inspiration.

We read Frankenstein by Ludoworst Bemonster next. This story is a Madeline parody and tickles the funny bone of those that can follow along, but we had a large crowd and it was a bit long for our audience. I probably wouldn't use this story again in a storytime setting like this.

After the story, our group was ready to move. I love If You're a Monster and You Know It by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley. Our copy was checked out though, so I downloaded the free musical version from the Scholastic page and we danced and snarled and roared like monsters. (The song is sung by Adrian Emberley.)

We passed out some musical instruments and listened and played along to the musical version of There Was An Old Monster sung by Adrian Emberley. I had a copy of the story so I turned the pages as the band played on. We especially loved the fact that monster kept on dancing because he had ants in his pants, scritchy-scratch.

After we bid farewell to our instruments, we read the story Frank Was A Monster Who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves. This funny book is rather participatory and was a great fit towards the end of our program. Plus it had the yuck factor you need at a monster event, since Frank's head unzips and his eye rolls out the door. After our reading, we did one last dancing song, The Monster Mash. 

We had lots of other monster books at the ready, including Go Away Big Green Monster, The Monsters' Monster, and Monster Mash, but our monsters were ready to create. (We had also created a "M is for Monster" book display early in the month to showcase all of those monster books we have!)

We sent the monsters on their way to make their own Big Green Monster cupcakes, painted monster pumpkins (or squash), and wild thing masks. We have so many wonderful businesses in our town and local area, that we were able to get 50 vanilla cupcakes (unfrosted) and 40 pumpkins and squash donated. We purchased the frosting, some candies, and bottled water. This entire program cost under $20.

Many families stayed for over an hour and half, so we thought it was monster mashing success!