The Kind-Hearted Monster: Two Classic Stories

PreS-Gr 2—This Dutch import features two fablelike stories, originally published in the 1970s, about a peace-loving leviathan. In "The Kind-Hearted Monster," misguided townspeople pitch a fit when they spy a huge, red, inferno-breathing creature. After the fire brigade douses Mervyn's flames, he is conscripted into the army, and when that doesn't work out ("Please…I'm a mild sort of monster, and I don't really want to be a soldier"), he is caged and put on display. A professor finally comes up with a plan that harnesses Mervyn's power in a positive way for everyone. In "The Monster and the Robbers," a band of burglars entice Mervyn with cakes laced with sleeping powder, and then kidnap him. The people from the peaceful town in "the country that was halfway to nowhere" come to his rescue. Velthuijs's distinctively bright, bold, naïve illustrations depict the bashful brute with a flower tucked behind his scale, and he sheds a tear when he receives a medal of appreciation.