By Tammi Sauer
Illustrations by Scott Magoon
Simon & Schuster, 2010
$14.99, ages 4-8, 40 pages
Bernadette the monster tries to do every creepy thing she's told. But deep down inside, she's just a softie.
The problem is, all the monster kids look down on sweet behavior and expect her to be just like them: gruff and loud and snarly.
In this adorably illustrated picture book, a monster girl discovers she can do nice things, and still be scary and revolting.
But it'll take Bernadette awhile to get there, and as the story opens, she's feeling a lot of pressure to behave badly at Monster Academy.
Most of the time in class, she acts as vile as everyone else: She slobbers and grunts, and keeps up her ghoulish looks.
Her skin is blue-green and sallow, her ears are pointy. She's got fangs, claws, a tail, big possessed eyes, even a skull necklace.
However, when no one is looking, Bernadette finds a quiet place to be nice.
She tiptoes through flowers, sniffs their petals, nuzzles with her cat and even bakes a muffin or two.
Then one day at school, Bernadette decides to take a chance and stop being so dreadful in class, though it doesn't quite go the way she hoped.
