Book Review: Spike the Mixed-up Monster by Susan Hood

Book: Spike, The Mixed-Up Monster

Author: Susan Hood

Illustrator: Melissa Sweet

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Publication date: 2012

Categories: 

Supports Diverse Protagonist

Picture Book 

Written in the last 4 years

Bilingual

Lexile Score: AD470L 

Target Audience: Preschool -3rd Grade

Age Range: 4-8 years old

Brief Summary

Spike is a little confused about what he really is. He thought he had all the traits of a monster until he finds out that his only the size of a lily pad and he doesn't scare anyone. One day a Gila monster comes along and all of Spike's friends are scared of him. Spike tries to scare the Gila monster. The monster says he wasn't scared and that it was just that no one has ever smiled at him before. Spike becomes friends with the Gila monster and all his other friends are grateful that he saved them.

Evaluation: 29/32

Illustration - 4

Storyline - 4

Appropriateness - 4

Problems/Resolutions - 4

Stereotyping - 4

Relatability - 3

Readability/Cohesiveness - 3

Critical Thinking - 3

This book is a bilingual book but it is not your typical bilingual book. The book is written in English and some of the terms are in Spanish. To figure out what the Spanish term is, the author and illustrator worked together to create an image that the reader can use to determine what the word means. At the end of this book, real pictures of the animals from the story are shown so the reader can see what the creature looks like in real life. I think this is a wonderful book that can be useful if you were to ever come across a time where students are going through a self-discovery phase. It is a marvelous book.

Literary Elements

1. Dialogue - A lot of dialogue is used throughout this book to show a constant flow of conversation between the characters.

2. Onomatopoeia - The author uses onomatopoeias to represent the noises that the Spanish creatures are making.

3. Rhyming - The author's creative combination of onomatopoeias and rhyming definitely creates a follow and rhythm to the book. For example there is a part of the book that says "Flap and fly! Flap and fly! Dig and hide! Dig and hide!" These two combinations create a great lesson for students to see how they can combine literary elements to make their writing more fun and interesting for the readers. It may be something that is hard to create at first but once students get the hang of it, they can create their own writing with combinations of literary elements.