WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE MONSTER, MAMA?

Hazen offers a good answer to the eternal question, as well as a delightfully monstrous cast. Little Harry is happy when his mother croons “Euuu, my cute little monster child, / I love the way you warm my wild”—and considerably less so when she pays more attention to big bro Bruxley or little sister Bronwen. Sitting with him on his bed slab after the inevitable tantrum, she fields his titular query by asking him which of his creepy beasties he likes best: Tiny, Slimy or Whiny? Then she tosses his answer—“I love each the most but not the same”—back at him. Kovalski adds icky details (Harry’s beasties are, for instance, a hedgehog, a slug and a bat respectively) to cozy subterranean settings featuring a stout, green-furred (one parent) family with a reptilian house pet and a revolting diet. Only the latest of several recent proofs that the long tradition of playing out familiar domestic issues with families of monsters is as active and effective as ever, this one is particularly well-imagined. (Picture book. 6-8)