Jeremy gathers his friends and gives each one “a fancy pen’’ to conjure their monsters. The result is something between a creature convention and a welcome party. Each child has a way of creating a monster that in some way reflects himself or herself - Jeremy’s monster, like him, wears a number 3 on his shirt and has serious cowlicks. A friend in a fish shirt draws a shark monster; a girl in a flowered dress creates a flowered monster; a round-eyed boy in purple creates a purple owlish monster and so on.
“The Monster Returns’’ is a lovely, simple story about art and friendship. While Jeremy doesn’t like “to be disturbed when he was drawing,’’ he’s not a lone ranger, either, and McCarty suggests that artists can do some of their best work in the company of others. He makes ample use of white space, which is another expression of what he does in the spareness of his language - McCarty leaves plenty of room for the reader’s own imagination, in a story that rings sweet and true.
Kathryn Littlewood’s middle-grade novel “Bliss’’ comes achingly close to greatness. Its hard-working young heroine, Rose, loves to bake, and she knows there’s something special, in fact magical, about the Bliss family bakery - especially in the handed-down cookbook her mother won’t ever let her use. Rose feels “ordinary,’’ and at times she’d do “just about anything at all’’ to feel special. Her parent’s muffins, cookies, and cakes mysteriously cure the various ills of the neighborhood. But when Rose’s parents leave town on an emergency trip, and her long-lost, glamorous Aunt Lily appears, Rose must answer the question of who really owns that cookbook and what should be done with its powers. Is the charming Aunt Lily trustworthy? What happens when you serve Love Muffins and hand out Cookies of Truth in the same week?
