Good and bad

Not a Scary Story About Big Scary Things
by C.K. Williams & Gabi Swiatkowska
Harcourt
In the woods there lives a big scary monster that likes nothing better than to scare little children. But what happens when a boy walking through the forest doesn't believe in the terrifying monster?

I love this story. The dialogue between the boy and the monster, the scary descriptions of how the monster may look...it's all wonderfully fun. I am not, however, a fan of the illustrations. There's a stiffness, a trying-too-hard-to-be-messy quality to them. While I can understand the desire to leave the actual monster up to the imagination of the reader, I find the varried depictions of both monster and setting inconsistent. Rather than giving the book a more universal feel, these inconsistencies break up the story and make me apt to forget them altogether and focus on my own imaginings. Additionally, the boy character, the only unchanging character in the book, is an old-fashioned depiction, a sort of old European children's book illustration with styling like that of a doll. I feel this depiction will only alienate viewers from the character, especially children today. So, fabulous text for a classic story, read it and forget the rest of the package.