SYNOPSIS:
The Monstrous Me series is a split perspective book looking at situations from another point of view to help children develop a sense of balance, roundedness and wellbeing.
Readers can literally and figuratively, turn the story on its head, and look at the very same situations from different angles.
In this first book, ‘My Mummy’s a Monster’ an inquisitive little girl is convinced her mum is a monster. But, is she really? When we look through her mummy’s eyes, we see a very different story.
My Thoughts:
This is such a quirky book which will definitely appeal to both children and adults. I love the concept behind the book and the powerful message it is portraying, that there are two sides to every story and that we cannot always see things objectively. As a primary school teacher and a mother to a 7 year old this is exactly the book I want my class/child to read. Learning through books is such a powerful tool and this book encourages and promotes children to see that situations will look differently to different people. This opens up a great discussion point for the children to explore, promoting empathy, fairness, and general awareness of other people's feelings.
The book features rhyming couplets which makes reading fun and pacey. The illustrations add to the story making it accessible for younger children who can follow along with the reading by using the picture cues to support. What I particular love about the book is that the author uses everyday situations, such as brushing your teeth, walking to school and bath time which every child can relate to. This helps provoke empathy towards the characters and allows them to reflect upon their own lives.
The hardback version of this book, I'm told, actually flips over at the midpoint to explore the next narrative. This extra feature sounds divine and would add an additional air of excitement and wonder to this physical book. There are also free downloadable activities on the website: www.lollipoplodge.com.
As this is the first picture book in the Monstrous Me series I cannot wait to find out what else Natalie Reeves Billing has planned, I for one will be collecting the future releases.
Madison's Thoughts (aged 7):
I loved this book. The pictures are bright and colourful. I loved looking at all the detail in the illustrations as they were quite funny. I also liked looking for the 'monstrometer' on each page as it helped me see hidden things that I hadn't noticed the first time round.
The story was really good and I did believe that their mum and dad were monsters at first. When we got to the second part My Children are Monsters I was quite shocked as it was the same story but from the mummy's point of view. I thought this was very clever and I spotted a few things that my mummy says to me and that I do. I think this book would be really good for children aged 4-8. I definitely would like to read the next books in the series as this was so much fun.
Many thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me to join My Mummy is a Monster blog tour.
About The Author:
Natalie Reeves Billing is a Liverpool lass with a dark sense of humour, which often spills onto the page. She loves to write spooky, fantastical stories for young audiences, and dabbles in poetry, contemporary fiction.
Natalie spent most of her early career in the music industry as a performer and professional songwriter. This lead, almost inevitably, to storytelling. Natalie is an Arvon Foundation friend and is a student of the Golden Egg Academy. She is mentored under the Lloyds Bank SSE program, with her Bubs Literacy project. She is published in several anthologies with her poetry and flash fiction, including the Writing on the Wall, Read Now, Write Now, and is involved in several collaborations with fellow writers across poetry, song, and scriptwriting.
Her new book, My Mummy is a Monster (part of the Monstrous Me collection) will be available in March 2020 and Carry Love in June 2020
Connect with Natalie on Twitter @BillingReeves.