Guilherme Karsten’s 2023 Are You a Monster? is a pleasant, well-designed, and interactive picture book.
It opens with a (not at all scary) monster who announces it is monster who fears nothing! It is looking for a monster friend, and asks a series of questions for kids to answer to figure out if they are monsters. These questions focus on the different elements of monsters: pointy tails, pointy nails, big eyes, and so on. When the reading kids answer no, the monster claims to be ending the book…right in the middle of the book.
Then, after “The End,” the monster notices reading kids are upset and reverses itself with another series of questions. This one finds ways to invite kids to be monsters, inviting them in. However, once they are acknowledged as scary monsters, the book reverses again: the monster gets scared and goes away, seeking its mommy, who it swears it can hear calling.
All of this is presented in bright text and images that use entire pages, sprawling and exploding in all directions.
