Ms. Celeste runs a cozy bed-and-breakfast in her ancestral home, Marymount Mansion. She also has a secret: her basement is home to a group of monsters for whom she is the only connection to the outside world. Every Halloween the monster children are allowed to go trick-or-treating because everyone assumes that they are also just little humans in costume. For Toby, the little green monster kid, his first taste of the outside world leaves him wanting more. He soon makes plans to leave the security of Marymount Mansion more often, relying on holidays and festivities to remain undetected. What he doesn’t realize is that not every human he meets will be as accepting of his differences as Ms. Celeste, and that carelessness could put his entire clan in danger.
Gregory G. Allen’s THE MONSTERS OF MARYMOUNT MANSION delivers important lessons in living confidently and without fear while navigating a world that may not be accepting of the way you look or live. This is a common theme in children’s literature, but Allen digs much deeper into the subject than most others, creating a sense of real danger and high stakes for the main character to reflect just how big and scary the real world can be for children who are at risk of alienation, discrimination, or bullying. However, the setting and characters have much more potential for enchantment than the author and illustrator Shelby Goodwin are able to create. Some of the main action is tied to seasonal holidays, such as Halloween and Christmas, but the overall descriptions and illustrations do not invoke the spooky atmosphere of one nor the festive cheer of the other. Similarly, any mention of the Mansion, especially its mysterious and seemingly endless basement, leaves the reader wanting more. As does the climax, which feels rushed, disconnected from the nuances of the first half of the book, and does not do justice to the story’s overall premise.
Gregory G. Allen’s THE MONSTERS OF MARYMOUNT MANSION, with illustrations by Shelby Goodwin, delivers a fresh take on the well-worn theme of living with and accepting differences.
~Sakina Hassan for IndieReader