Marilyn's friends are all lucky. They waited for their monsters to find them ring class; on the way home; once, fortuitously, while escaping bullies st like they're supposed to. But Marilyn remains monsterless. For a while, she was content to wait patiently for her monster and make sure she looked "very friendly and interesting and smart and fun to be around." Soon, however, she gets fed up with waiting, so she heads out to find her monster on her own. At first, she still can't find him, but finally her monster appears: he's stuck in a tree branch and needs her help. Knudsen's charming story is a great fit for Phelan's gentle watercolor-and-pencil illustrations. With just a few lines and brushstrokes, he depicts the wide range of Marilyn's emotions, from wary hopefulness to sullen grumpiness to, finally, utter joy. The whimsical, friendly monsters are equally expressive, and their supernatural antics in the background will tickle funny bones. Little ones feeling lonely or worried about making friends will be empowered by Marilyn's determined, take-charge attitude.

K-Gr 3 One of the poignancies of childhood is the waitingfor a loose tooth, to ride a bike, to learn to read. Knudsen's brilliantly simple narrative and Phelan's whimsical pencil and watercolor drawings speak to the universal need for belonging and the anxiety born of impatience. The story's opening sentence sets up the plot: "Some of the kids in Marilyn's class had monsters. It was the latest thing." These pet monsters each seek out just the right child, and that takes time, so at first Marilyn isn't worried about not having one of her own. But the longer she waits the less patient she is; she adjusts her appearance and behavior hoping to attract it and then tries to convince herself that having one doesn't matter anyway. "But they were pretty great. She could see that they were." So finally, against the advice of her know-it-all older brother (his monster sits on his head like a squishy baseball hat), Marilyn takes matters in her own hands. She packs a lunch and sets out to find her monsterwhich happens to have gotten stuck in a tree while trying to find her. Every one of Phelan's monsters is wonderfully weird, and readers will have fun noting similarities between them and their human friends. VERDICT Pair this story with Mo Willems's Leonardo, the Terrible Monster (Hyperion, 2005) and Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Weirdos (Little, Brown, 2002) for a ready-made guidance lesson or a fun storytime with built-in text-to-self connections. Lisa Lehmuller, East Providence School District, RI