{"id":46871,"date":"2026-09-12T20:21:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46871"},"modified":"2026-09-12T20:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:24:42","slug":"review-of-blue-monster-by-petr-horacek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46871","title":{"rendered":"Review of Blue Monster, by Petr Hor\u00e1cek"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Blue Monster<\/em><\/p>\n

by Petr Hor\u00e1cek<\/p>\n

Otter-Barry Books. 36 pages.
\nReview written August 25, 2026, from a library book.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This book surprised me into laughing out loud when I opened it up to read. The titular Blue Monster looks friendly and sweet. The story plays out on a bright yellow background. As the book opens, Blue Monster is bored, and asks Rabbit to play with him. But Rabbit doesn’t hear him because he’s fast asleep.<\/p>\n

When Blue Monster wakes up Rabbit, he doesn’t want to play because he wants to sleep.<\/p>\n

So Blue Monster swallowed Rabbit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Rabbit’s friend saw what happened. Blue Monster is feeling embarrassed, so he swallows Rabbit’s friend, too.<\/p>\n

And so it goes. This is my favorite exchange:<\/p>\n

“Have you seen the rabbits anywhere?” asked Raccoon.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t swallow them,” answered Blue Monster, but he looked a bit shifty.<\/p>\n

So Raccoon said, “You did swallow them, didn’t you?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What does Blue Monster do? I’ll bet you can guess.<\/p>\n

I like the way the book connects feeling uncomfortable emotions with Blue Monster’s actions. And the background color shifts to blue and more subdued. <\/p>\n

Now Blue Monster felt VERY bad.<\/p>\n

He knew that swallowing friends is not a nice thing to do.<\/p>\n

Besides, now there was definitely nobody who would play with him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But no worries! When Blue Monster sits down, feeling sad, a bit lonely, and very guilty, he yawns – and all the animals climb out of his mouth (which conveniently has no teeth).<\/p>\n

They all looked a bit cross, which, to be fair, was quite understandable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The animals have a long chat. Blue Monster tells them how sorry he is, and after a stern talking-to that swallowing friends is not nice, he promises never to do it again, and we end with the animals playing nicely together and having lots and lots of fun.<\/p>\n

And my description doesn’t do justice to the charm of this book. Of course it would be a perfect vehicle for what’s a good way to deal with uncomfortable emotions, and that we really shouldn’t swallow our friends. Also that everybody makes mistakes – there’s a nice model of apology and forgiveness.<\/p>\n

And besides, it’s a sweet story that will make you smile.<\/p>\n

petrhoracek.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Picture_Books\/blue_monster.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Monster by Petr Hor\u00e1cek Otter-Barry Books. 36 pages. Review written August 25, 2026, from a library book. Starred Review This book surprised me into laughing out loud when I opened it up to read. The titular Blue Monster looks friendly and sweet. The story plays out on a bright yellow background. As the book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,15,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-characters","category-picture-book-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46871"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46936,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46871\/revisions\/46936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}