Lights-Out, Leonard!

Toddler-PreS–This funny, twisted bedtime story features Leonard, a white child, who sees monsters in the dark shadows of his room. He insists he needs the lights left on. His parents acquiesce and allow it; then one day a book turns up at Leonard’s house that is all about how to get rid of monsters in the bedroom. The first tip is to brush your teeth, because “minty breath makes monsters so sick they shrivel up and disintegrate into dust.” This book employs the genius idea of reframing bedtime rituals as monster-fighting strategies. The illustrations appear to be mixed-media collage and have a muted palette. The strong graphic elements provide a lot of energy around the monsters and offer younger readers an opportunity to point out things in the pictures. Teachers could easily use this story as a mentor text for writing descriptions, either specific prompts modeled after the monsters’ descriptions, or explanations of bedtime rituals and how they keep the monsters at bay. Pyke writes with vocabulary that is excellent for building oral language. Kids and parents are going to love this idea, as it will surely help with some of the bedtime tasks that kids push back against.