SOPHIE AND THE NEXT-DOOR MONSTERS

Meeting the new neighbors turns into a monstrous affair for the intrepid Sophie in this wry tale. Although her mother has invited the next-door neighbors over for dinner, the redoubtable Sophie believes she is just too wily to fall for their tricks. She knows they are monsters, even if her mother inexplicably does not. Much to her surprise, Sophie finds some common ground with Charlie, the young blue monster, discovering that he loves to make noise and be silly, too. Debut author-illustrator Case carefully balances Charlie and Sophie’s similarities and differences, guiding readers to the conclusion that sometimes the new and different can be just as much fun and friendship-worthy as the familiar. His ink, watercolor and gouache illustrations feature an imaginative world of monster properties, the finely detailed drawings brimming with clever minutiae. The narration is a spot-on complement to the often laugh-out-loud images, telling just enough of the story to allow the pictures to go wild. This saucy, tongue-in-cheek tale has a timely message worth sharing. (Picture book. 5-7)