7.8 /10 1 Votes
Cover artist Michael Smollin Language English Media type Print Originally published 1971 Genre Children's literature Illustrator Michael Smollin | 3.9/5 iTunes - Apple Country United States Subject Monsters Dewey Decimal 813.1 ISBN 307010856 Series Sesame Street | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar Another Monster at the End o, The Poky Little Puppy, The Little Red Caboose, The Saggy Baggy Elephant, Scuffy the Tugboat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The monster at the end of this book
The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover is a children's picture book based on the television series Sesame Street and starring Grover. It was written by series writer and producer Jon Stone and illustrated by Michael Smollin, and originally published by Little Golden Books in 1971. It has since become the all-time best-selling Sesame Street book title and has been cited as a modern classic of children's literature.
Contents
Plot
Having read the title page (or, in later editions, the cover) Grover is horrified to learn that there is a monster at the end of the book. He immediately begs the reader not to finish the book, so as to avoid meeting this dreadful scary monster.
Growing increasingly fearful as the reader continues to turn pages and frustrated that they do not seem to realize the terrible danger, Grover resorts to constructing a series of ever-more-elaborate obstacles, such as tying pages together, nailing the page to the next one and finally even laying a brick wall to keep the reader from advancing further. But nothing works (primarily because from the reader's POV these are simple illustrations, not actual difficulties).
Finally driven to total despair by the reader's ability to "overcome" the obstacles, Grover makes one last frantic plea to the reader not to turn the final page...
...Only to discover on that page, in a surprise self-referential plot twist, that the monster in question is none other than Grover himself. He tries to laugh it off, saying he knew it all along—but the reader can see at the end that he is terribly embarrassed.
Reception
Originally written to introduce young children to the concept of reading a book from beginning to end, The Monster at the End of This Book is the best-selling Sesame Street book title of all time. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". In 2012 it was ranked number ten among the "Top 100 Picture Books" in a survey published by School Library Journal.
Sequels and adaptations
Two direct sequels were produced, also written by Stone and Illustrated by Smollin. Would You Like To Play Hide and Seek with Lovable, Furry Old Grover? (ISBN 978-0394832920), was published in 1976, while Another Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover, and Equally Lovable, Furry Little Elmo (ISBN 0-375-80562-1), was published in 1996. The latter features Grover now coping with Elmo actually encouraging the reader to turn the pages out of sheer curiosity.
Sesame Workshop released the original story as an audio-enabled eBook on December 7, 2009, though it is no longer available.
On January 30, 2013, the Sesame Street Twitter account adapted the story to the popular social media network, again starring Grover with some impromptu assistance from Wil Wheaton.
Audiobooks
This book got its first audio book release in 1986, a 2nd in 1988, a 3rd in 1996, a 4th in 1997, a 5th in 1999, a 6th in 2001, a 7th in 2002, an 8th in 2003, a 9th in 2005, a 10th in 2011, & an 11th and final audiobook in 2015.