Thank you to NetGalley for granting this ARC, super cute and fast read. The illustrations were adorable and the story was cute.

Monster Heroes is an illustrated chapter book about monsters who want to be superheroes instead. Mina is a vampire who drinks beet juice instead of blood; Brian is a zombie who eats tofu instead of brains; Will is a ghost who prefers helping people to scaring them; and Linda is a witch who wants to use her magic for good. They go on adventures like keeping other ghosts from haunting a house, keeping Mina’s parents from eating the new neighbors, teach Linda’s evil potion-brewing sisters a lesson, and saving the town from zombies wanting a late night snack. I love the allusions throughout the story, such as references to Hill House, a band called “Vampire Weekday,” and the like. The illustrations are cute and bright and the stories are simple enough to read for beginners but fun enough for the whole family.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

This was a fun, engaging story with great illustrations! I look forward to reading it with my son when he is a little older.

'Monster Heroes' by Blake Hoena with illustrations by Dave Bardin is a cute early chapter reader about a group of monsters who try to be heroes instead of monsters.

Mina is a vampire who drinks beet juice instead of blood. Brian is a zombie who uses his brain instead of eating them. Will is a ghost who is shy, but uses his invisibility to be brave. Linda is a witch who wants to use her magic for good. Together these three friends help each other and others.

In each of the four stories in this book, each character has a crisis. In each, they call on their friends for help, and the friends come up with a solution that works.

I like the aspect of friendship shown in this book. The illustrations are fun and the book isn't scary in the least. I also like the little nods to horror movies and books, like a new family moving into Hill House across from Shirley Jackson's tomb. I suspect most early readers won't catch that reference, but it made me smile.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Capstone Young Readers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Monster Heroes written by Blake Hoena and illustrated by Dave Bardin is a transitional chapter book. This book collects four shorter stories by the author and illustrator pair: Ghost Trap, Zombies and Meatballs, Vampires and Veggies, and Witch's Brew. It is currently scheduled for release on June 1 2017. A zombie, a ghost, a vampire, and a witch make up one unique group of monster friends who don't exactly fit in with the other monsters. While their friends and family are busy scaring humans and doing general scary stuff, our four monster friends are using their skills for the greater good.

Monster Heroes is a series of stories with an idea and artwork that I liked. Ghosts, monsters, and ghoulies that want to help people rather than eat or scare them. The artwork is bright, and sometimes silly, which I think was perfect for the book. The stories were a little fun with good intentioned monsters trying to help and protect people. Even though the book is an easy read, and intended to be, I found it to be a little too simplified. I do not think that is quite the right word, but it is the one that keeps swirling through my mind. I felt like there could have been something more, but I cannot quite put my finger on what. Even with a simple vocabulary big ideas and humor can be abundant. I have read a lot of easy readers and transitional chapterbooks- and while they are easy readers the best ones have something that help the reader connect with the characters and I could not find the connection here. I wanted to love the book, but I just did not.

Monster Heroes is a transitional chapter book with many playful and bright illustrations. Readers that like Casper and similar stories about creatures that should be scary being nice will enjoy the read. I found it to be a little too simplified and stiff- but I do think there are many readers out there that will enjoy the story.

Excellent children's book for those with children with active imaginations. My son loves scary stuff, but not too scary and luckily this book gave him all of that excitement he desired without any really scary stuff. We enjoyed reading about the different monster heroes within this book and what they accomplished. Highly recommend for those with children like mine, who want to read about monsters without the very scary stuff?

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

I just finished reading another Monster book where it was similar in that there was a group of monster characters which were considered different than the others because they didn’t want to be like ‘normal’ monsters. Whereas that one had many elements of bullying and the ‘misfits’ being picked on and abused by their monster society to the point I didn’t feel comfortable recommending it this one earned my definite approval.

I love how though you have this group of monsters who do not want to be like their stereotypical counterparts, rather than be upset about it, they embrace their uniqueness and have carved a way for them to fit into their monster society. You have elements of teamwork, friendship, love, and acceptance that as a mother of 2 daughters with Autism I could very easily turn into positive lessons for them and their friends.

The illustrations added a beautiful dimension to this book as they captured the spirit of the characters and made it that much more fun to read.

I would definitely encourage parents to buy this book and enjoy it with your kids particularly during the Halloween season.

From the cover I was expecting an all ages graphic novel and was happily surprised when it turned out to be a beginning chapter book. This is a hard area for authors to break into because it is dominated by a few very large series. But I think this series deserves a place in line. These monsters do not want to be bad, they want to be superheroes. So they go out of the way to be different than their nature, and to help others. The book is full cover, and contains four stories. I love the illustrations. They are so much fun.

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