The Monster in the Shadows - Hardcover

Julia and Robert Van Nutt have been working together for twenty-five years. During this time, they have worked on numerous design jobs, from freelancing for The New York Times to working on sets and costumes for a Broadway play. In the last ten years, they have designed eight children’s books and six animated videos that were shown on national television.
The Van Nutts use history to guide them as they write and illustrate their Cobtown stories. With an amazing cast of characters and an in-depth study of everyday life in the 1840s, these stories–inspired by a hobby of collecting electric trains–take place in the village of Cobtown.

Grade 1-3-As in the previous series entries, this story is told in the context of a young girl reading her great-great-grandmother Lucky's diaries. In this installment, 10-year-old Lucky describes her encounter with a traveling medicine show. The promoters tell the town about their main attraction, a wild animal called an Adapulgus, and spin wild yarns about how ferocious and dangerous this "savage monster" is. The tension builds as Cobtown residents become more and more frightened about the threat this creature poses. After they pay their money to see him, the beast breaks loose and they are warned to hasten home and lock their doors. Lucky, her aunt Heddy, and her friend Fliberty happen to overhear the crooks laughing about how they swindled the townsfolk out of their admission fees. The three of them get their revenge on the hucksters and get the money back, too. The full-page illustrations emphasize the old-time setting and keep the action moving. Embellished with simple sketches and memorabilia, the pages of text look like diary entries. The somewhat lengthy story is engaging and young readers will enjoy the fact that a child is able to help outwit two unscrupulous adults.
Sheilah Kosco, Rapides Parish Library, Alexandria, LA
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