Moin and the monster

by Anushka Ravishankar, Anitha Balachandran (Illustrator)

One night, in the dim darkness of his room, Moin heard something shuffling and sniffling under his bed. . . . It is a monster. Moin has to learn to live with the monster, which does nothing but eat bananas, sing silly songs and try out new hairstyles. However, keeping the monster a secret from his parents and teachers is a tough task and finally Moin decides that the only thing to do is send the monster back where it came from.

116 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2020

About the author

Anushka Ravishankar, a mathematics graduate, has made a name for herself internationally as an Indian children’s writer, with over 10 books of verse, fiction and non-fiction. Her special talent is in the area of nonsense verse, where she brilliantly adapts this difficult genre to Indian English usage, without a false note. Anushka Ravishankar can be said to have pioneered the Indian English nonsense verse form and brought it to international attention. She recently returned from a UK tour with Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, at the Children’s Bookshow.

from http://www.tarabooks.com/about/authors/

Reviews

[Arti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moin Kaif, a student of Class IV, hears something shuffling and sniffling under his bed one night and when he asks who it is, a voice answers that it is a monster. Moin tells the monster that he cannot see him, to which the monster says that if he drew the monster as the monster would describe himself, Moin could see him. Moin, being a very bad artist, says he could not do so but when the monster says that a monster rule would change Moin into a suitcase, poor Moin has no choice but to draw a picture according to the instructions given by the voice of the monster and the monster comes to life.

The monster is upset with the picture, he says that he looks funny instead of fearsome; is pink instead of purple; has drumsticks instead of bamboos for legs and has autorickshaw horns instead of animal horns.

Moin is in a fix. He has to hide the monster from his parents, feed him and take care of him and the monster loves to sing, eat bananas and wants a new hairstyle. Thus begin the adventures of Moin and the Monster. He goes with Moin to a birthday party, makes friends with Parvathy and Tony, sings a song; goes to school with Moin and is pinned up on the notice board as a painting and as a result of the hair treatment for a new hairstyle, grows hair so long that it cannot be managed.

Tony wants to write a book on Monster rules and keeps noting them as the monster reveals them and also one book on the strange behaviour of monsters.

Moin wants the monster to go away but the monster tells him that the monster would stay with him forever- A monster rule.

[Varsha Seshan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review
https://www.varshaseshan.com/moin-and...

Book Club Ideas
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[Nadine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and funny book about a monster under the bed who settles into Moins life and turns it upside down. Great illustrations

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story adventures of boy with a monster. In a funny way though.

[Monish Uday · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story is exciting but writing is let down.

[Varsha Hasini.S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moin finds a monster under his bed. The monster sings and gets moin into troble, the monster eats a ton of banannas,it wants a new hairstyle. This book is so funny I can`t wait to read the next part

[Chris N · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the character Monster and the bananas episode a lot
It was really funny

A simple good read; and the story has a steady pace

[Pulkit Saini]

its good

[Neha Aggarwal · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was good