Monster Museum

A.  Bibliography

Singer, Marilyn.  Monster Museum. Ill. by Gris Grimly. New York:  Hyperion Books for Children. 2001.  ISBN:  078680520

B. Plot Summary

Monster Museum contains 21 poems.  The book is a single poet compilation.  Excluding the first and last poem, each poem in between focuses on a monster that is on display in the Monster Museum.  The first poem of the book is a welcome poem to children visiting the museum.  It introduces what they will see on their tour and what the reader will find as they read.  The last poem is a farewell to the children and to the reader.  A unique portion of this book is that it contains a "Glos-Scary".  The "Glos-Scary" offers a description of each monster on display and also gives a picture of the monster.

C.  Critical Analysis

     The strange exhibits in Monster Museum offer readers a field trip through a place unknown without ever leaving their reading space.  Readers will laugh and be frightened when reading Singer's crazy poems. The first poem allows readers to understand children are there for a tour, but it isn’t until the farewell pages that we see the students getting on a school bus.  Through the illustrations, we also see each child has chosen a monster as a buddy.  I think is an important aspect to add simply because we do not want smaller children to be frightened by a book like this, but rather enjoy its obscurity and humor.

      Each poem offers bits of information about each monster on display and puts the information and funny facts together in a rhythmic arrangement.  Not every poem is the same in its rhythm, but every poem is engaging in its patterns.  These poems are fun to read aloud, but are best when the reader can view the illustrations of the book too.  The illustrations add a great deal of character and detail to the poems.

     Gris Grimly did the illustrations in this monsterous book of poetry.  The illustrations go right along with each poem in that they show the monster on display in a way that captures what is written in the poem.  One aspect I love about the illustrations is the they allow the reader insight into the thoughts of the children as they view each exhibit.  This is extremely clear when reading the poem titled, “The Zombie”.  The students on the field trip are actually pictured dancing right along with the poem.  Another favorite illustration that shows the students interacting with the “exhibits” or poems, is the illustration for “Main-eating Plants”.  One of the students is pictured running from the “man-eating plants” with a look of shear horror on her face!  Even though the students are not addressed in any of the poems, we definitely feel their presence in the book simply because of the illustrations.  All of the illustrations are done with watercolor and are brightly detailed. 

      These poems would appeal to readers of all ages.  I know many would say that these poems would be appropriate for Halloween, but really who doesn’t love a good monster story.  I know Monster Museum is a book of poems that students will come back to over and over again!  The poems are fun to read and easy to love! 


D.  Review Excerpt


Publisher's Weekly says, "To the rollicking beat of Singer's (The Circus Lunicus) absurd poems, children trail an undead docent through a "monster museum" where the exhibits are wax replicas... or are they? The visitors see Frankenstein's creation ("I'm called Frankenstein,/ but it's his name, not mine"), the Blob and "Those mixed-up beasts from ancient Greece: the chimera, the cockatrice." Grimly, a Charles Addams devotee, packs the spreads with frantic activity that rewards sharp eyes; on the tour, sneaky things ambush museum-goers. Among the season's best creature features. Ages 5-9."

E. Connections

In the poem titled “The Cockatrice and Co.”, I loved the last two lines,

     “Keep ‘em straight, and you’re a hero.

      Hesitate, and, zap, you’re a zero.”

I thought this would be a fun poem to integrate into math when studying multiplication properties in 3^rd grade!  It is important for the students to understand that anything multiplied by zero is zero.  This would be a fun way to include literature into becoming zero.  The students could create a zero monster to help them remember the zero rule for multiplying. 


Author's website:  http://marilynsinger.net/
Illustrator's website:  http://www.madcreator.com/


F.  Other book by Marilyn Singer

ISBN: 0786818778

ISBN:  0525479015

ISBN: 0547330049