I'm excited to be sharing The Lullaby Monsters today on For Little Readers. I was so excited when Cynthia Mackey shared her new book with me and I'm glad to be sharing it with you all now!
The Lullaby Monsters is a hybrid between Picture Book and Early Chapter Book. I'm new to that genre, but funnily enough, one of my critique partners was recently working on a similar style, so I looked into it a bit more. The Lullaby Monsters reminds me a lot of Charlie and Mouse. Fun story, great sibling dynamic, and a nice introduction to the chapter book style.
In Lullaby Monsters, big sister Kelsey is always there for little brother Thomas. She is brave, prepared, and lots of fun. But when her one fear confronts them, she'll have to put her bravery to the test to help Thomas get back to sleep. And she learns that the lullaby monsters aren't all that different from her own little brother.
There's a lot to love in this cute book, but the sibling dynamic is definitely my favorite part of the whole thing. My girls loved it and we talked about how they play together and take care of each other. We always like to do an activity with our new books, so this time we did a couple of things. First, in honor of Kelsey and Thomas, we had an indoor picnic/tea party and invited all of our favorite stuffed friends.
Later, we drew our own lullaby monsters and had a really great time with it.
Overall, this is a cute book with a simple text. It would be a great introduction to early chapter books while still hanging on to everything we love about picture books. While my 5 year old adores chapter books, my 2 year old won't sit through them. But even the 2 year old loved Lullaby Monsters as it had plenty of pictures and read more like a picture book than a chapter book. It's a great hybrid of the two styles.
You can find Cynthia Mackey online and purchase The Lullaby Monsters, available now:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mackey_cynthia
Kailei! I see you have a monster book out now. Congratulations and thank you for featuring my monster book back when it came out in 2020. I was thinking of Charlie and Mouse when I wrote the story so it's great that you noticed.