This is a charming story about one really bad monster who learns to change his ways. Written originally in French, and illustrated with delightfully ghoulish paintings by the Québecois artist known simply as Rogé, Taming Horrible Harry is a wonderful tale about the power of stories. At the gates of a beautiful forest, Harry the monster lies in wait. One day, as monsters are wont to do, he frightens a little girl, who runs away leaving behind a peculiar object. Harry picks it up, turns it over, bites it … spits it out, and throws it down in a fury! He wonders what kind of a thing he has found. As it turns out, the object is a book … and one way or another, Harry learns to read it, and his life is changed forever. This delightful story will enchant both young readers and their parents, teachers, and librarians, as they discover together, the magic of reading. Kindergarten-Grade 3–The art is the strong point in this story that promotes literacy. Horrible Harry, the resident monster of a forest, takes great pleasure in terrorizing human visitors who blunder onto his path. He sees a girl sitting on a rock and attempts to frighten her, but she is so caught up in what she is reading that he has to roar twice. Thinking that the book must be magical, he takes it when she leaves it behind and sets off to learn how to read; in the end, he shares the stories with others, ultimately adjusting his own attitude and converting other resident monsters. Harry's greatest wish becomes to meet up with the little girl again–not to terrorize her, but to share a book with her. The pictures have that ghastly but humorous quality so enjoyed by children. The wolf Harry eats for breakfast, for example, sits frowning in a bowl as Harry gleefully dumps a bottle of milk over it. A bowl of eyeballs rests on a rock, ready for a quick snack. Illustrations on full-bleed spreads are boldly colored with garish streaks of acrylic paint. Sharp teeth, eyeballs, and two-headed creatures abound. Children will find Harry a delight. –Corrina Austin, Locke's Public School, St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Praise for Taming Horrible Harry: “The talent and imagination the pair [Lili Chartrand and Roge] let loose are about as magical as magic gets.” — Time Out New York   “Roge’s splashy artwork includes plenty of grinning monsters with varying numbers of eyes and heads, plates and jars full of monster eyeballs, and enough monster details to beguile the picture-book crowd.” — Publisher’s Weekly   “The art is the strong point in this story that promotes literacy…. The pictures have that ghastly but humorous quality so enjoyed by children…. Sharp teeth, eyeballs, and two-headed creatures abound. Children will find Harry a delight.” — School Library Journal   “For any parent keen to make a lifelong reader of their child... a delightful story…. Children... will be captivated by the sight of the many-eyed monsters...” — The National Post Lili Chartrand trained formally as an artist, and then worked for several years in film animation. Passionate about reading, she discovered that writing children’s books allowed her to combine many of the things she loves to work with most: words, images, and color. Writing children’s books lets her enter a world that is full of magic. Lili is the author of five books, the first of which, Malédiction, farces et attrapes !, was shortlisted for the Prix Hackmatack. Rogé knew from a very young age that he would grow up to be an artist. He knew this because he knew that he should do what he loves, and what he loves most is illustrating children’s books. Le Gros Monstre qui aimait trop lire is Rogé’s fourth book. He began his career as a graphic artist, and worked in marketing for several years. After a year in France he returned to Quebec to pursue a career as an artist. He has been one ever since. Susan Ouriou is a Calgary-based writer, interpreter, and translator of fiction. One of her greatest pleasures is sharing with others the stories for young and old that she discovers in the original French or Spanish. She was runner-up for the John Glassco Translation Prize for The Thirteenth Summer , and a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Translation of The Road to Chlifa . Susan lives in Calgary with her family. Used Book in Good Condition