PPBF: She Made a Monster

Author: Lynn Fulton
Illustrator: Felicita Saal
Publisher: Penguin/Random House, 2018
Age: 5-12
Themes: Mary Shelley, horror writing, Frankenstein
Opening: Two hundred years ago, on a wild, stormy night in a beautiful house on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland, a young woman named Mary sat at her dressing table .

Summary: (from my library catalog) On a stormy night two hundred years ago, a young woman named Mary waited for inspiration. Her friend, the poet Lord Byron, had challenged her to write a scary story, but no ideas would come. Mary thought back through her life at the eerie things she had seen in her childhood and the losses she had suffered. But nothing was as scary as her own imagination. As she drifted off to sleep, she pictured something monstrous, a creature that was so frightening, people would run from it in terror. And when Mary awoke, she had her story. — adapted from cover flap.

I like this book because: it’s a delicately rendered, exciting telling of the creative impulse behind this world classic. So many layers and just eerie enough to entice readers to delve into the book themselves. (Sorry for the horrible glare in the photos – hope you seek out a copy to right my wrong!)

Resources/Activities: for the macabre-friendly: disassemble doll or action figure parts and reassemble, going your old toys new life – which can also be used for Halloween decorations.

For more Perfect Picture Book Friday picks with teacher/parent resources, check out the list on Susanna Hill’s blog HERE.