Milo's Monster: A Big Bright Feelings Book

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Oliver Jeffers. For very similar reasons to Jon Klassen, I really admire Oliver Jeffers’ ability to communicate a huge amount of emotion or mood with the bare minimum of marks. I always seem to end up going with the illustrative equivalent of the ‘Wall of Sound’ in music production! David Almond introduces his new picture book, A Way to the Stars, a story about perseverance and finding a way to make dreams come true. It was never really the ‘stories’ as such that engrossed me so much in her books as the portraits of her characters that were all so vivid and alive I would often think about something that one of them had done and think that it was someone I actually KNEW who had done it. Tenma and Grimmer wasted no time finding Miloš. Their efforts directed them to the red light district, but they did not find him easily. When they have reached the end of it, their hope of finding Milosz had quite diminished, until Grimmer spotted him by the edge of the bridge, looking over the rushing current of the river (because it was raining), about to jump over. Reading this book gave me a powerful insight into how our brain works with negative emotions from a young age.

It's fascinating how, our days, writers teach children how to deal with feelings and self-expression through their stories.Milo loves his house because he lives right next door to his best friend, Jay, and they do everything together. Then one day, the two boys notice that a new girl, Suzi, has moved into the neighborhood. Milo’s Moster is an engaging story of a child that sees his best friend meeting and making a new friend. Milo is jealous of their friendship and is described as a green-eyed monster. Jealousy (or envy) is often described as a ‘green-eyed monster’. Can you find out more about the history of this phrase? From the creator of Ruby Finds a Worry, a story about what to do when jealousy comes between friends.

What inspired you to write your latest book?The book Herman’s Letter first popped into my head when my girlfriend gave me a limited edition screen print by an illustrator called Simon Tozer of a bear holding a letter. The picture is called ‘The Last Post’ and I just loved the bear’s melancholy expression and wondered what he was doing carrying the letter and who it was for. My brain set to work on it and eventually came up with Herman’s Letter. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my brain sometimes - it really is remarkably useful. Perhaps an odd choice as a teenager, but I went through a stage of reading as many Mary Wesley books as I could get my hands on. She just seemed to be so skilled at portraying people of all ages and walks of life. As a teenager I marvelled at the fact that she could so clearly write about what it felt like to be that age, being as she had her first novel published aged 71. Of course now that I’m 35 and can still remember EXACTLY what it felt like to be 16 it doesn’t seem that unlikely anymore – ah, the follies of youth.Bestselling author Alexandra Christo, author of TikTok sensation To Kill a Kingdom, introduces her new book, The Night Hunt (Hot Key Books), a dark...

The title of this story uses alliteration. Can you think of (or make up) other book titles that also include alliteration?One time he went out of the orphanage to play, and accidentally saw the Blonde Lady (Johan cross-dressing) again. Miloš followed her

Tom Percival's Big Bright Feelings series is the perfect springboard for talking about mental and emotional health, positive self-image, building self-confidence and managing feelings. Every child's bookshelf should contain his books. Like many other parents and teachers, I was happy to see there was another Big Bright Feelings book from Tom Percival; he seems to capture children's emotions so clearly and to find stories that will engage young children and support them in navigating those feelings. What's the best thing you've ever written?A poem I wrote about a badger when I was six. It included the phrase, ‘He dragged his lumbering frame across the leaves’ which I MUST have stolen from a book I’d read that day. Sadly it was never photocopied and is now lost FOREVER. I even drew a scratchy pen and ink picture of the said Badger – we learnt to write with italic metal nibbed pens at my frankly archaic primary school. Look at the front cover of the book. Who or what is Milo’s Monster? What do you think might happen in the story?

LoveReading4Kids Says

He grew up in a remote and beautiful part of South Shropshire. On reflection this seemed rather more remote than beautiful, owing to the fact that he lived in a small caravan without electricity, mains water or any sensible form of heating. He thinks that he’s probably one of the few people in his peer group to have learnt to read by gas lamp. A few days after his suicide attempt, Milosz was seen to have gotten over the Blonde Lady's lecture about death. What was your favourite book when you were a child?Tim and Tobias is the first book in the ‘Flight Path to Reading’ reading scheme and was written by Sheila K. McCullagh. It was the first book that I remember loving and was (guess what) atmospheric, magical and slightly dark. In Milo's Monster, the author explores jealousy and what happens when Milo feels that his best friend, Jay, is being taken away by new girl, Suzi. Milo gets angrier as he feels increasingly left out of their games until eventually, a green-eyed monster appears, making Milo feel even more angry and jealous to the point where he stops playing with his old friends. Eventually, Milo realises that his actions are making them as sad as he feels and he finds a way to say sorry, and the children become friends once more. Jon Klassen. I have a huge amount of time for Jon Klassen’s hyper-minimal style, it’s SO stark and yet so full of character and humour. Very impressive.