Or, more specifically, I just read two of Robert Marsh's Monster and Me graphic novels. I read Monster Moneymaker, a hilarious story reminiscent of The Chocolate War, but with monsters, and Monster in the Outfield, in which the blue hairy beast known as Dwight helps his keeper, 12-year-old Gabby, and her team mates beat her school's teachers at a game of baseball.
The series works under the premise that every kid has a monster, but most people keep theirs hidden. Not Gabby, though, who lets Dwight out of the closet and free to cause as much mayhem as his good heart will let him.
The series is funny, pleasingly weird and has just the right blend of wackiness and ribald. Tom Percival's unique art is both strangely effective and effectively strange and never fails to get the story across.
The books are geared toward striving readers at the elementary and middle school levels and are just one of a series of comics-inspired books from Capstone Kids, a division of Capstone Publishers, which seeks to serve the needs of prek-12 readers. I have no idea how Capstone has escaped my prying eyes to date, but I'm glad I learned about them through Marsh's exquisitely silly and enjoyable books.
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