School Library Journal Review
PreS-Blue Monster gets easily bored with the things and people in this life. He wants brand-new things and people instead. This started when he was a baby and has continued throughout his childhood. When his grandma gives him some money, he decides to leave home and start over, hopefully find the elusive happiness he craves. His purchases start small with a hat, then move up to a sports car. Yet these new things still don't satisfy. Even the magnificent palace with a carnival and circus doesn't make him happy for long. Neither does his next stop to a tropical island. Eventually even the sun bothers him, so he gobbles it up. In the darkness, he misses his family and decides to return home realizing that everything he needed was already there. Text is simple but the plot is not subtle. The message is clearly about not being materialistic and appreciating the people in your life. However, the storytelling lacks the finesse of some other titles on this subject. Illustrations work well with the text. Not surprisingly, as the title reflects, there is a lot of blue in the illustrations. -VERDICT -Recommended as an additional purchase in libraries where patrons actively try to steer preschoolers away from a culture of materialism.-Robin Sofge, Prince William Public Library System, VA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A little monster who loves "brand-new things more than anything" has some trouble adjusting to a new baby in the family.His parents are in the habit of placating him, and when he rejects his teddy bear, his mom and dad give him a baby sister. He's excited at first, but soon the bloom wears off, and he says, "I don't want my old sister!...I don't want my old teddy bear! Or my old mom and dad!" He gathers all the money his grandmother has given him and leaves home to start a new life. Finally, after acquiring a hat, a red sports car, a big golden palace with a carnival and circus, an airplane, and an island, Blue Monster realizes "there are some things money just can't buy" and returns home. The story covers well-worn territory: Blue Monster is petulant and selfish, and he learns a lesson about the hollowness of things. But Willis and Desmond's version of this familiar tale has a new energy. Desmond's splashy, line-and-watercolor illustrations are sassy and humorous: one spread shows the protagonist reclining in a new red sports carfeet in new sneakers and sipping a trendy coffeeand zipping past an international skyline (London's Gherkin, New York's Freedom Tower, Seattle's Space Needle, and the Eiffel Tower, among other structures).An amusing, over-the-top new-sibling book with echoes of "The Fisherman and His Wife." (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
