Member Reviews

Max is an energetic, loveable, messy, monster - really messy. His messes are out of control! The mess becomes so bad it comes to life as a monster itself! Filled with rhymes, enjoyable illustrations, and a good story line, all the while the reader unknowingly learns excellent SEL and executive functioning skills.

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This book introduces you to Max the messiest monster on Mill Street. One in a series of Mill Street monster books. The books I have read are so spot on in showing the feelings of the monster then how to deal with the emotion they are tackling. It is demonstrated beautifully, with brightly colored illustrations. The monster shows how he feels in the beginning with with him happily gluing and spraying glitter everywhere, painting pans has spilled paint everywhere. His bedroom also has clothes all over the floor with dishes of food and drinks scattered around. What a mess. There is a loss of clean floor space in his room. A messy monster for sure. The book, just as quick shows how to deal with the big emotion. Included is cleaning up the mess the chaos created. Max puts it all into one big mountain in his room. It also demonstrated how he tackled it one section at a time and made a game out of it to have some fun. Soon the entire floor was picked up toys were organized books with books, etc. they all had their places. He placed food in the waste bin, dishes in the sink. Washed and put in their respective places. There won’t be a next time because he has learned to clean as you go and to mop your floor which leaves you lots of room to do whatever you want. But, in case it does happen again, you are equipped to deal with the emotions before they take over. I highly recommend this book and I am. recommending these Monster on Mill Street books in general. They are perfect to keep in your library to read over and over. Special thanks to the following for allowing me to review early: #NetGalley, #ViaNovaProductionsLLC., #SarahSparks, #TheMessiestMonsteronMillStreet. Publication Date: October 2, 2023 Go out and pick up your copy today to read together this weekend and enjoy!

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Max is the Messiest Monster on Mill Street. Sarah Sparks did a great job with this book. I read it with my 3 years old. And both of us had fun.
The story is cute

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Meet Max! The third book that I get to review for Sarah Sparks. Max is the Messiest Monster who learns a valuable lesson about cleanliness. This is a fantastic book for littles and teaches a great lesson in all of the fun. I absolutely recommend all the books for Sarah, she is a fantastic author that captures those things that we need to work with our children on, but also a good way to go about teaching the littles how to work on those things in a better way. Highly recommend! Thank you to Sarah and NetGalley for allowing me to read the ARC, I cannot wait for more!

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Awesome books for kids. Teaches a great lesson that it's okay to make a mess but it needs to be cleaned up!

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This is an adorable book that simultaneously entertains and makes kids want to clean! The mixture of Sparks's rhymes and Vendez's illustrations made it a super engaging story that I could easily imagine my younger neighbors and nephews loving. The adventurous element of Max getting stuck in the world created within his mess was genius, and I thought it was so important that he was the one who realized he needed to clean. No kid likes it when a parent tells them to clean.

Overall, a super cute read that I definitely recommend!

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The Messiest Monster on Mill Street is the perfect story for this messy kids at home. Max learns that messes can be overwhelming and even take over. I just love this whole series. They contain important lessons for kids, told in a way even kids will enjoy. Funny story, cute and relatable characters, and beautiful pictures. My kids really loved this book, and it was a good reminder for them to clean up as we go, something I'm always trying to teach them.

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In The Messiest Monster on Mill Street, young readers meet Max, the messiest monster on Mill Street. He spills things on the floor; piles of toys, dishes, and shoes are all over the place; and he’s a dirty, tangled mess. But, one day, Max’s messes get out of control, and he has to figure out what to do.

In this adorable rhyming picture book series, author Sarah Sparks writes to assist children in developing executive functioning and social-emotional learning. In that aspect, she exceeded expectations. Max witnesses what happens when he loses control, which allows him to sit back and discover how to fix the issues he faces without adult intervention. I also admire that Sparks accomplished this without an abundance of text. My only little niggle is that the rhymes don’t always flow smoothly.

The bright, colorful, and zany illustrations by Sypha Vendez are totally delightful and will engage readers right from the start. Because Sparks delivered her message succinctly, this left a lot of space for Vendez to explore the Mill Street community and the characters’ emotions with her artwork. She truly brought this story to life just as much as the author.

Sparks knows how to create entertaining message-driven fiction in a way that the reader will learn without realizing it. I’m looking forward to more from this talented author.

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Max's world is a mess and one of his own making. Max is having too much fun to clean up after himself and the trail of his activities follows him everywhere. One day Max's mess takes on a life of its own and Max has to rethink being the Messiest Monter on Mill Street.

"Designed to assist children in developing executive functioning and social-emotional learning (SEL) skills" the Monsters of Mill Street series uses adorable monsters to illustrate some of the challenges that children face, and the means to think and resolve those challenges for themselves. I thought the story was fun, easy for children 3 and up to read and comprehend, and was a useful conversational tool to get children to see their own behaviors at whatever their level currently is.

As with may of the children's book i review, I enlisted my 9 and 11 year old helpers to read and review the book with me and to give their opinions. After all, the way a child reads a book can be very different than the way a child does. They both got such a kick out the the way that Max was trapped by his own mess, how he was chased by dust bunnies (mostly because I routinely tell the 9 year old that her dust bunnies have been friended by dust elephants that live in her closet), and how there was no escape until he realized that he had to clean in order to have space to do the things he wanted. They really liked the illustrations, even though they thought the wording was a bit simplistic (i did have to explain that as a reader, this book was for younger children even if the message wasn't.).The best part was the conversation afterward. The illustrations, while funny, enabled them to realize how an adult might see the mess in their room, and why they are asked to clean up after themselves. It also made them realize just how easy it is to pick up small messes as they happen rather than letting them get bigger and bigger. so while the book is aimed at smaller kids, there's nothing that says an older child won't learn something as well.

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Read this book to both my 2 and 4 year olds separately and they LOVED it! Such a fun and engaging read with a superb message. Will be reading more from the author.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review!

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The monsters on Mill Street series targets children's habits and attitudes while teaching life lessons to monsters. The children easily identify the monsters' bad habits and find lots of fun in how the monsters learn. Sarah Sparks has done an excellent job targeting the stories to children ages 4-8 while still being a fun read if the child were a couple of years older. We actually got our "messy" 10 year old to read them to his lirrle brother so had two life lessons at once. These will be added to our home library. They will also be gifts to many of the youngsters in our family. What a fun way to learn!

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This Monsters on Mill Street series is adorable! In this book Max is too busy having fun to clean up after himself until his mess gets so big that it becomes alive. The illustrations are cute and the rhyming makes the book fun to read and listen to. These books are way to introduce behavior topics that you would like to discuss with kiddos because even though the situations in the book are clearly overboard, it opens the topic of what are the realistic consequences of the behavior.
Thank you to Netgalley and ViaNova Productions for an advance reading copy of this book for review purposes.

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The messiest monster on mill Street
By Sarah sparks, sypha vendez

Max is a careless monster to distracted by fun, he leaves a mess with every one. Sarah Cynthia silvery stout may have taught us to take the garbage out. Max teaches kids to be clean is a good thing. You don't have to change but take your time and clean up one thing at a time.
Great book for social emotional learning. It helps children in early elementary school to help clean up after each of their activities so school can still be fun.

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This book is absolutely adorable!

Meet Max, who is the messiest monster on Mill Street.

Max quickly finds out that his mess has gotten way out of control and he needs to fix it. (and FAST!)

This book does a fantastic job of explaining to kids, in a fun way, that messes happen and here is how you can take responsibility to not only clean up your mess but also prevent them from happening in the future.

The illustrations are bright, catchy and exciting.
The rhyming will definitely hold a child's attention and teach them a valuable lesson in an entertaining way.

I think this is also a good book for adults to read!

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This book was lots of fun! The rhymes were excellent and the moral very clear. I will read this book to my students again, and I recommend it to other home educators.

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It was a very good book. Had such a beautiful message and the illustrations are eye catching. Definitely an amazing read for kids

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This is a great story to teach kids how to clean up after themselves. It teaches that it isn't about being perfect, but just trying to stay on top of the mess.

The story was fun to read. The illustrations are bright and match what the story is telling.

Check the link listed at the end of the book for activities and resources.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

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The Messiest Monster follows Max who does not clean his room and seems content in his slovenly ways until those ways catch up to him. This is perfect for those messy kids. They see this adorable monster who loves to have fun, just like they do. My little can look around his room and find clothes, toys, and books strewn about that his parents often ask him to pick up. The adorable fun-loving monster then realizes the importance of cleaning up his mess while still having a grand time. Little guy, I'll call him Bean here, loved looking at all the illustrations and the literal bunnies made of dust. Bean was discussing what all the eyes were in the mounds of mess and he liked the idea of googley eyes because he has those in random places. Bean loved the story and the art, but insists he is not anything like Max…as I look around his room and the mess he has made.

Overall, each of the books in this series teaches young kids that it is okay to be the way you are, but sometimes you have to make adjustments so the actions you take are not harmful to them, or those around them. We read these books 3 days ago and my son can not stop talking about them. He says these books are about him or they have a little bit about him in them. The art is adorable, and the books have a great message for the little ones.

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A delightful, colourful book teaching kids the joys of cleaning. I love how messiness is depicted and normalized in the book. Everyone has a messy side and that's completely okay! Bright, vibrant characters are always entertaining for young minds, so this book is a 10/10 recommend. Also great for your preschoolers first read, being short with simple vocabulary.

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I received a free copy of, The Messiest Monster on Mill Street, by Sarah Sparks, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Max is the messiest monster on Mill St. He is ok with it until it becomes out of control. I think this is a good book for kids on cleaning up their messes. Putting away toys and clothes,etc.

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