Archive | July 16, 2020

Hodgepodge: How to Make a Pet Monster 1

Hodgepodge: How to Make a Pet Monster 1

Hodgepodge: How to Make a Pet Monster 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hodgepodge: How to Make a Pet Monster 1

Lili Wilkinson

Dustin Spence

Albert Street Books, 2020

200pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9781760877385

Life has changed dramatically for 11-year=old Artie.  He and his mum have just moved into a spooky old house with his mum’s new partner, and while he’s OK with that (even if he doesn’t know quite what to call the partner) he has also gained a sister – one who is a year older than he and who terrifies him.

Artie also likes to read his Junior Scientist magazine bur he is having trouble finding a quiet place to do so – he can’t read downstairs because his mother is renovating; he can’t read in the kitchen because David Cole (what he has settled on calling him that) is making dinner; and he can’t read in his room because Willow is being too noisy, shouting on her phone to her friends and playing her electric guitar “making sounds like someone is stomping on a bag of cats”. so he ventures up to the attic and that’s where he discovers The Bigge Boke of Fetching Monsters.  Unfortunately, before he has a chance to hide it, Willow discovers it and she insists on trying out the instructions.  Artie, who doesn’t believe in monsters at all because, like ghosts and skeletons and other things that live in haunted houses like his, they don’t exist, is very apprehensive but Willow is insistent. And the fun begins…

This is the first in the series that will appeal to newly independent readers who, like Artie, aren’t too sure about those things that go bump in the night. Written from Artie’s perspective and full of illustrations that carry the story almost as much as the text, it will hit the spot with those looking for a fun-filled read that involves characters they recognise, or might even be.