Movie Monsters from Godzilla to Frankenstein

Reviewed by: Jill - Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 13, 2017

Review

Elementary-aged readers gravitate toward this type of book because monsters are fascinating. The premise of the short (32 pages) book is that monsters have been depicted in movies (and literature) for over a hundred years. It seems that the subtitle should read from Frankenstein to Godzilla (or to today) as Frankenstein was the first monster to be shown on the screen and the book mentions many other monsters, using photographs and screen shots from films and jumping around from monster to monster and time period to time period. It also tosses in the idea that science has mimicked some of the ideas of monster movies like the work of scientist Henry Markram who studies the human brain and hopes to be able to one day build a copy of one (a modern Frankenstein?). It is a little jarring to see an image of a person with prosthetic legs in a monster book because, though the idea is that we are creating prosthetics to help people live better lives, equating a person with prosthetic legs to the idea of Frankenstein's work can be confusing to young readers. Titles like this are great to get dormant readers interested, but this book could have been better organized and laid out. Part of a series.

Overall Book Score: fair