Billy Monster's Daymare by Alan Durant and Ross Collins
| Billy Monster's Daymare by Alan Durant and Ross Collins | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: Billy Monster has daymares - he keeps dreaming that he's seen a child and terrified that one might be lurking under the bad. Highly recommended by The Bookbag. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: 6 Sep 2007 |
| Publisher: Oxford University Press | |
| ISBN: 978-0192726490 | |
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Billy Monster lives with his Daddy In a darkish, creepy wood... In a darkish spooky house... In a darkish, gloomy bedroom...
One night there was a scream and Daddy Monster came to see what was wrong. Billy has had a daymare and he's seen that most dreadful of all things - a child. Not only was it a child, but it was a boy child, with two little eyes and two little ears, and no horns at all!
Daddy Monster realises just how awful this has been for his son and he howls a monster lullaby until Billy is fast asleep again. It's not long though before he's back at his son's bedside and the problem is quite dreadful. Billy has had another daymare. This time it was a girl child, and worst of all she tried to kiss Billy. Daddy is soothing and gets Billy a cup of cold slime. Soon he's fast asleep again, but Daddy doesn't have long in his own bed before Billy cries out again.
Billy is convinced that there is a child in his room and Daddy has to go through that ritual which will be familiar to most parents. Cupboards are looked into and on top of, bookcases are looked behind and the bed is looked under. It's a while before Daddy can convince Billy that children are not real and only exist in Billy's imagination, but with a beast to cuddle and a story read Billy soon settles down.
Oh, I loved this book. I couldn't stop laughing at the way that every fear that a child has is reversed for Billy. At night the room is too light and the curtains have to be drawn tight to make it dark for him. His bedtime story starts Once upon a time there was a brave little monster. But his fears are the same as every child's - the fear of the unknown, the fear of what might be lurking unseen. Best of all, the fears are not minimised. Daddy Monster accepts that they were very real for Billy and very frightening. With simple kindness and logic he proves that Billy's fears are groundless - and how good to see the father being the one who looks after the child rather than the stereotypical mother.
I think every child goes through that phase of fearing what might be lurking in the dark. This book tackles those fears with humour and understanding, by suggesting that even if there were monsters then they might well be just as frightened of a child. It's a superb way to get children talking about their fears rather than bottling them up.
The text is brilliant: humour that will appeal to child or adult and a simple direct approach to the problem. But what really lifts this book is the illustrations. They're vivid, in-your-face and vibrant, with lots of detail which you don't always see on a first or second reading. At Daddy's bedside there's a book called 'Scaring for Fun' and there might not be a child lurking in the bedroom but there's a vast array of very creepy wildlife to be found!
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending this book to The Bookbag.
Another book which looks at children's fears is Here Come the Aliens by Colin McNaughton or why not try our review of Emily Gravett's Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears?
Billy Monster's Daymare by Alan Durant and Ross Collins is in the Top Ten Picture Books For Overcoming Bedtime Woes.
Billy Monster's Daymare by Alan Durant and Ross Collins is in the Top Ten Picture Books For Halloween.
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