Monstories: How to Use Monster Books to Write Your Own Monster Story

There are some really great monster books out there. One of my newest favorites is MONSTORE by Tara Lazar, which I featured during Picture Book Month. 

I use MOSTLY MONSTERLY by Tammi Sauer, illustrated by Scott Magoon, and I NEED MY MONSTER by Amanda Noll, illustrated by Howard McWilliam, to help students come up with their own monster.

MOSTLY MONSTERLY uses a lot of vivid verbs to talk about what the monsters do.

I NEED MY MONSTER uses a lot of unique word choice to describe the monsters that are tried out.

The first thing I do is read both of these books. As I’m reading we make a list of vivid verbs used to describe the monsters and unique word choice used to describe the monsters.

Then students create their own monster by drawing and describing it using vivid verbs and other unique word choice. They can use the sample posters we created to do this.

Using the planning sheets, students can create their own monster and monster story. This is a great way to use a mentor text as a writing prompt or story idea generator.

I’ve been using storyboarding a lot as a planning tool for my students. It seems to be easier for them to plan by doing simple drawings than actually making lists or plunging in to the writing. Then after they storyboard, they can work on a rough draft of their monster story.

Other Favorite Monster Books

JEREMY DRAWS A MONSTER by Peter McCarty

MONSTORE by Tara Lazar, illustrated by James Burks