The world's worst monsters by David Walliams. Illus. by Adam Stower

Following on from The World's Worst Children, Parents, Teachers and Pets comes this gem of a story tome, the self-proclaimed "87th most scary book ever written". David Walliams has hit upon a winning formula with this series and this one doesn't disappoint. It's a great addition to the series and will win over little Halloween and spooky lovers everywhere. Fun colour illustrations on every page and eccentric humour that oozes from every sentence are combined with superb storytelling and brilliant plotlines to make these stories thoroughly engaging.

There is a different monster featuring in each of the ten stories, with most child favourites being covered: vampire, ghost, gorgon, zombie, creature from the deep, werewolf, Frankenstein's monster, mummy, abominable snowman and loch ness monster. These are not general monster meets human type stories though. Similar to his previous books in this series, each story has a completely different setting and context. The stories are fantastical, unpredictable and ludicrously funny. Some standouts include the son who has to keep it a secret that his mother is a zombie in a post-apocalyptic world and the young girl who uses her Frankenteddy to get revenge on her evil brother. The monsters aren't always monstrous, there is no real terrifying factor as they are more humorous than scary and there is generally a happy ending, although this is probably best kept away from very young or highly sensitive children.

The ending alludes to a World's Worst Monsters 2 which is sure to be just as fun and rollicking to read.

Themes: Monsters, Humorous stories.

Nicole Nelson