Tag Archives: #MonsterMeltdown

All the adults are freaking out. Giant monsters are smashing up supermarkets across the country. The army can’t stop them and the prime minister is hiding in panic. A colossal six-headed gingerbread man, a massive emoji poo, a gigantic bouncing bum… Top scientists have no idea where they come from – or why they seem to hate supermarkets so much. But nine-year-old Otis has an idea. The creatures are exactly the same as drawings by his five-year-old brother, Jago: what if Jago brought his crazy creations to life with a magic pen? But their parents won’t listen, so it’s up to Otis and his pals to sort this monster mess out!

My Review

Thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours for organising this tour, and the author and publisher for sending me a copy of this book. I was a little worried it wouldn’t arrive on time but it did on Thursday. I think I read it Thursday evening.

Monsters are attacking Rottingdean, and all the adults are going a bit mad. It’s up to Otis, Jago and their friends to find out where the monsters are coming from and stop them. Their adventures are hilarious as they dodge monsters, soldiers and their Dad, who keeps running into walls. They outwit the adults, defeat the monsters and get covered in chocolate.

At 157 pages with illustrations and a couple of paragraphs a page, it’s not a long read, but for a young child it would be a good starter book, once they’ve moved beyond picture books. Six to nine year olds will love this book. They will also learn about the damage our government has done to libraries. The book was written during lockdown to help Lloyd Jones’ sons cope with the pandemic through humour. The illustrations of the increasingly frantic prime minister in his bunker were particularly pointed.

The group of friends are a balanced group, characters who bounce off each others’ silliness and manage to work well together to solve a problem. I liked the depiction of the people at the care home having lives beyond their status as old people waiting for their family to visit or to die of boredom in their care home. I giggled quite a lot reading the book.

The illustrations are really good, very humorous. It’s a familiar style in books for the age group.

I would definitely recommend this book, especially for kids struggling to cope with the pandemic and lockdowns of the last couple of years.

Author Information

Rob Lloyd Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed middle-grade novels Wild Boy and Wild Boy and the Black Terror, as well as the Jake Atlas adventure series.

Created with his sons, Otis (9) and Jago (5), during home-schooling, Me, My Brother and the Monster Meltdown is his first funny fiction for younger readers. In Rob’s words, “it celebrates the power of children’s imaginations and their strength in adversity and adventure…and a monster apocalypse.”

Rob lives in East Sussex with his wife, and monster-mad Otis and Jago.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RLloydJones