School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Using the words from the 1962 novelty song "Monster Mash," Catrow has created a hilarious picture book with inventive illustrations. Electrifying pictures on spreads with minimal text explode the lyrics into a (not) terrifying book that monster fans will cherish. The artwork shows everything readers might think would frighten them in a humorous light. The detailed pictures are created with pen, pencil, watercolors, and gouache. For example, the lyrics "The coffin-bangers/were about to arrive/with their vocal group/The Crypt-Kicker Five" are set against a picture of a skeleton dragging a fiery vehicle loaded with several pairs of pink eyes as it passes in front of an enormous Swiss cheese moon on its way to a drawbridge that leads into a spooky castle. This title will work as a read-aloud, but kids are going to want to spend a lot of time looking at the illustrations. It is a book for every library with readers who celebrate Halloween.-Mary Hazelton, Elementary Schools in Union, Washington & Waldoboro, ME (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this homage to the 1962 classic Halloween song, a blobby scientist is working in his lab when his Hollywood-style Frankenstein's monster starts dancing the Monster Mash. Soon he's joined by Wolfman, Dracula, guitar-playing skeletons (the Crypt-Kicker Five), and creatures with an assortment of tentacles, pincers, horns, and eyes. Catrow's outlandish aesthetic is well suited to the absurdity of the song's lyrics, and he doesn't hold back-his oozing, decaying, sharp-fanged creations may well prove too scary for more timid readers. Braver kids, though, should still find it a graveyard smash. Ages 3-8. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
