There are Monsters Everywhere

There are Monsters Everywhere
Written and Illustrated by Mercer Mayer
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Ages 4-8

There are monsters everywhere! In the basement, in the bathroom, you can not take out the trash because there might be monsters waiting in the dark... A young boy is tired of being pushed around monsters so he takes karate lessons and knows he no longer needs to be afraid of monsters.

In "There are Monsters Everywhere" a young boy thinks there are monsters in all of the darkest, scariest places, places where you are alone.  I remember as a kid being terrified to go up to my grandma's attic without the lights on.  I knew there was not actually anything to be afraid of but that did not keep me from sprinting up the stairs, feeling like something would grab my legs at any moment and turning on the light at the top with my heart racing.  In this book the monsters are very real in the illustrations and play a large part in the story, constantly lurking behind doors or peering around corners.  What is amusing is that the monsters look like children themselves, while they may be big and hairy with sharp teeth, they also have braces and baseball caps and pout when its bed time.  All of this is told through the illustrations.  Another great detail in the illustrations is the boy's dog who is seen sniffing and growling at the monsters but never directly mentioned in the text. 

The boy decides to take karate lessons because he is tired of being pushed around by the monsters.  He learns some great karate moves and not only is he no longer afraid to take out the trash, he hopes the monsters will show their faces so he can show them his moves.  The surface message here is that the boy became stronger so he could fight off the monsters physically and was no longer afraid of them.  However another theme is that through karate the boy gained self confidence and although he knew there were monsters everywhere, he did not need to be afraid of them. 

I would read this book aloud to my class and take lots of time to let them look at and discuss the pictures.  The first time quickly read through the story I did not take time to look at the illustrations apart from getting the necessary information.  However when I listened to a second grade student read the story he spent half of the time looking at the illustrations and narrating was happening in them and how it related to the text.  He would ask questions and make predicitons based on the illustrations then look back at them for confirmation.  The illustrations are a big part of the reading experience.  I would also discuss the boy's fears in the book, why is he afraid of monster?  Where/ when is he most afraid of them?  Do you think they are real and how do they affect his life?  We could talk about some of our fears and how they limit what we do.  Then we could talk about ways we might be able to get past those fears by changing ourselves even though the things causing the fear are still there.  At the end of the book the boy says that even though he knows there are monsters everywhere "I don't care!".  I think this could be looked at on a larger scale because there are many factors beyond our control that cause fear in our everyday life.  That fear only inhibits us so by asking these questions and addressing what we can do like the boy taking karate lessons we can be less restricted by fear.