Monsters Eat Whiny Children Book

This cautionary tale about whiny children being eaten by monsters is upended when the monsters cannot decide how best to prepare their meal. A whiny child salad doesn't work because there's paprika in the dressing. A whiny child cake won't do because the flour spills all over the floor. Whiny child burgers are out of the question because the grill is too hard to light. When the persnickety monsters finally decide that whiny child cucumber sandwiches are the perfect solution, their whiny children have escaped. At least the children have learned their lesson...for now.

Publishers Weekly

A monster with a dragging tail and crested head takes whiners Henry and Eve home in a sack, planning to make them into whiny-child salad, but that doesn't curtail their behavior ("I don't like sitting on lettuce," whines Henry). The monster's wife is similarly afflicted: "I hate cilantro!" she screams, ordering him to remix the salad dressing. But while the monsters and neighbors debate dinner options ("Perhaps a whiny-child vindaloo"), Henry and Eve hightail it for home. New Yorker cartoonist Kaplan adds only the subtlest color washes to his blank-eyed figures, framed inside black lines, serving the snarky text with a pinch of Shel Silverstein and plenty of bourgeoisie irony. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)