Simone: The Best Monster Ever!

A great introduction to graphic novels for young readers, Simone: The Best Monster Ever! puts a twist on the concept of "monsters" with which many young children are familiar. With a different story being presented on each page, in a streamlined layout with engaging illustrations and brief, to-the-point dialogue, young readers will enjoy the humour expressed, while building reading comprehension skills and developing a sense of the typical features of such a text.

I have no doubt that if this were one of the books available in our classroom and/or school library, my students would want to read the stories to me (or have me read the stories to them) and share a laugh about the cheeky adventures of Simone and Maurice!

Simone: The Best Monster Ever is a super cute graphic novel for younger audiences. Made up of a collection of comics rather than one long story, I think this will appeal to 7-10 year olds. I have a feeling there will be a lot of giggling going on when the students get their hands on this.

Simone is a sweet little girl who likes cute and pretty things. Her best friend is Morris, who isn’t quite human. In this collection of comics Simone is visiting Morris’ world, where her cute looks makes her a horrifying monster, fun has a little bit different meaning, zombies are normal and butterflies are terrifying, and Santa has trouble understanding Simone’s Christmas lists.

You remember those days in elementary school where someone decided it was opposite day? Well, Morris seems to live in opposite world. What we’d consider gross, he and his fellow monsters love. What we’d consider cute and lovable they consider downright nightmare worthy. Which makes for some laughter-inducing situations for human readers. This could be super gross, but Simard never makes it over the top gross. Puke is mentioned, but not shown. And don’t tell Morris, but he and his friends may even be a little on the cute side illustration-wise. The regular appearance of Santa and his miscommunication with Simone I think were my favorite parts. Although Morris’ little brother Farto’s appearances were always pretty funny and run a close second along with the “scary” Halloween costumes. I can see this comic being popular with elementary and middle school crowds. And it would be a good way to illustrate how different worldviews and cultural backgrounds can affect how we view a situation. I may have to hunt down a copy for our library.