The Mischief Monster by Bruce Coville
The Mischief Monster is the fourth book in Bruce Coville’s delightful MOONGOBBLE AND ME series for ages 9-12. I’ve been listening to this series of short books on audio with my girls who are 6 and 9 years old. Each book is about an hour long and dramatized by Full Cast Audio, which means there’s a cast of readers playing parts rather than just one narrator.
In The Mischief Monster, Edward, Moongobble, and their friends try to return a mischievous monster princess named Snelly to her home in Monster Mountain. As usual, there’s a surprise twist at the end. The plot of The Mischief Monster is cute and funny (especially when Urk the toad gets turned into a fluffy pink kitty). My girls loved the story.
Though I’ve been recommending Full Cast Audio’s versions so far, I can’t do so for this installment. The voice used for Snelly, the titular character of The Mischief Monster, is piercingly high-pitched. This is supposed to be cute and she’s supposed to sound like a brat, but it’s so effective that it soon got on my nerves. Even my daughters were annoyed by Snelly’s voice.
If you’ve enjoyed the previous MOONGOBBLE AND ME books, you’ll be happy with The Mischief Monster. I just suggest reading this one in print. My 2.5 star rating reflects my disappointment with the audio version, but my daughter Tali said she’d give it 3.5 stars.
Thank you. I’m all caught up. Back to reading Crimson Embers.
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