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Review #12521 - Dated: 29th of September, 2014
Author: kymmage |
The front cover of Monster Chef was what drew us to this book. Aside from it being by the amazing Nick Bland (we own a few of Bland's books), the cover art is fantastic. Against a matte charcoal grey background, Marcel the monster is gorgeously green and shiny. The texture of his fur is etched into the shiny portion of his body, which is lovely to explore with your fingers.
Inside is a tale that my children both enjoyed. My toddler flicked the pages over with great gusto, ohhing and ahhing over each new picture. She pointed to things she recognised and said their names. She also roared appropriately much to the amusement of her sister. My 7 year old enjoyed the story, and liked the monster cooking. I thought she might be grossed out by it, as she is already a fussy eater. But she thought it was funny, and did a lot of giggling and pointing at the pots and baked "goodies".
For me though, the story was something else entirely. It doesn't always occur to children that an adult can be in a job that doesn't suit them or they don't like. No child goes to school and says "I hope I have an office job" or "I'm hoping to work in fast food all my life" while they are at school. Yet, we grow up and we end up doing roles that don't always light us up. To me, that was Marcel's tale.
Here he is, a monster, who can't scare. Yet every day, off he goes to what must be a soul destroying job. And then when he comes home, he has his cooking hobby and that is what makes him light up. That's the thing that makes his life worth living. And then this moment happens and it changes everything for him. He gets an opportunity to change things and he takes it. And that to me is the magic of this book. What a joyful thing to read as a parent and adult, feeling trapped or dreaming of something else or MORE. Shouldn't we all be a little bit more Marcel and a little less trapped in the square. I think so.
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