Making Friends With Frankenstein: A Book of Monsterous Poems and Pictures (by Colin McNaughton)

Parents may find the humor in this collection of poems a little grisly and inappropriate for younger children, but middle-grade students will lap up these pages. Colin McNaughton is a master of the pun -- at least the kind that circulates in elementary school. In one poem, a child helps a monster who has literally "lost his head." Cleverly, "The Ode to the Invisible Man" is on a blank page.

Unfortunately, a few poems fall flat. The poem to send to your worst enemy is a simple list of playground insults such as "fleabag" and "pizza face." The illustrations, which alternate between double-page scenes and smaller vignettes, keep the collection light. A few feature blood and vomit, but mostly the monsters are comical, hairy, and wart-covered. They help remind parents that this collection is all in good fun.