Everyone loves a spooky story don’t they? This week we’ve been taking a look at Midnight Monsters by Helen Friel and getting really spooked out. Midnight Monsters is an amazing book. It’s a pop-up shadow search book and it’s perfect for reading after dark.
To enjoy this book, turn the lights off, get your torch out and shine it through the pop-up scenes in the book to learn more about the monsters who lurk in the shadows.
In Midnight Monsters, you travel through a series of pop-up scenes; the wild woods; creepy caves; mysterious mountains; a misty lagoon and a haunted castle. Each page has five creepy creatures to spot. This is best done in a dark room; put the book on a table or flat surface and shine a torch or the light from a mobile phone through. This will cast a shadow on the wall behind, revealing the spooky scene.
Each of the five creatures has a description to help you understand more about them. All of the creatures are rooted in folklore. We spotted a Yeti, a Griffin, a Cyclops and a vampire, in among all the other characters. I can’t help but feel that Midnight Monsters would be the best thing to bring out at a children’s Halloween party. Shine a light through and tell creepy stories about the characters in this book, it’s got such great bedtime ghost story potential.
It’s written and designed by Helen Friel, a freelance paper engineer and illustrator who has also written Midnight Creatures: A Pop-Up Shadow Search, Midnight Monsters is the follow-up to that book.
Midnight Monsters is not actually scary enough to lose sleep over. It’s a great novelty of a book, beautifully designed and almost too good to share with the kids. It takes shadow art up to the next level. It’s superb.
If you’re looking for something a bit different to read, explore and enjoy with the kids this autumn, Midnight Monsters by Helen Friel is almost certainly that book.
Midnight Monsters by Helen Friel costs £16.99. It’s published by Laurence King and it is available from a wide range of bookshops including Amazon.
For details of more children’s books published by Laurence King, visit their website.