Frankenstella and the Video Store Monster [Hardcover]

In this riotous creature feature, which echoes the emotional themes of Jules Feiffer's I'm Not Bobby! and Molly Bang's When Sophie Gets Angry... Really, Really Angry, a frustrated girl transforms into an Incredible Hulk-ish giant. On a trip to the video shop, Stella warns her mother about the monster hiding in the dark corner where they kept the dusty old movies nobody wanted to rent anymore. But small, quiet Stella cannot make herself heard, and her nonchalant parent totters toward a horned shadow: At which point the monster ate her. At this (unpictured) instant, the heroine becomes so incensed that she metamorphoses into a jagged-toothed ogre, smiling as she roars, I'm Frankenstella! And I eat monsters for my breakfast! She rescues her mother, hurls the frightened monster out to sea (it gets a life preserver) and shrinks to her original size. Brennan (Fairy Nuff) favorably compares the righteous tantrum to chiller-movie mayhem; Frankenstella vanquishes a cackling video clerk who had teased her, and her rampage is cheered by upstanding citizens. Gale (A Brave Knight to the Rescue) forgoes conventional black outlines for screaming-red lines on blazing yellow backgrounds; in her crazy-quilt collages of cut paper and scribbles, arrows and block-printed symbols fly every which way, suggesting an off-kilter weather map or a stormy temper. This cathartic book packs a visual punch, and makes good sport of one's inner and outer demons. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-This unimaginative story, which could have been lifted straight from Saturday morning cartoons, bills itself as "a cautionary tale." Stella tries to warn her mother about the monster that lurks in the corner of the video store, but the woman won't listen and is promptly eaten up. Faced with the possibility of being eaten next, Stella gets so angry that she grows and changes into a monster herself. She chases the creature through the city and forces it to burp up her mother, who continues to attribute its existence to Stella's imagination despite the fact that she is covered in green slime. Gale's unique illustrations bring the only touch of creativity to this tale; the cartoon characters dance through a collage landscape comprised of different types of paper, magazine photos, and wild patterns. The pictures lead the story into the postmodern Powerpuff Girls-style world even as the thin, aimless text fails to do so. A marginal purchase that may hold some appeal for cartoon fans.
Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Maryland School for the Deaf, Columbia
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

This modern picture book teaches us to never underestimate the power of a pint-sized little girl to size-up store clerks, see through the shortcomings of parents and well, rid the video store of MONSTERS! Meet Stella, a character whose tolerance for the intolerable (in this story that means a monster who eats her mother) is very low. Pushed to her limit, this cute little girl explodes into Frankenstella, a kid super-hero of sorts, and gets that nasty monster to burp up her mother and stop lurking in the dark corner of the video store. This hilarious story is powered by high fidelity, digitally inspired art and gets its "I eat monsters for breakfast" attitude from today's empowered kids.

Herbie Brennan lives in County Carlow in Ireland. He is the author of many very successful books for adults and children. He has pursued his interest in psychology and hypnosis since the age of nine when he actually hypnotized a school friend! Herbie continues to study, write, and speak on mythic themes and enjoys creating technologically advanced novelty products such as games, computer software and CD-ROMs.

Cathy Gale has illustrated a number of well-received books for children and lives in England.