In Little Monster Did It! by Helen Cooper, a little girl misbehaves and becomes a nuisance at home with the arrival of a younger sibling. The story begins with her parents presenting a soft toy - Little Monster - to her before they left to the hospital. Upon their return with the baby, things go terribly wrong in the house which the girl insists was caused by Little Monster. In a charming and indirect way, Cooper gives the reader the opportunity to distinguish what is really happening from what the girl claims to have happened. The colourful full page illustration makes reading and solving the Little Monster Did It! mystery enjoyable. Finally Cooper resolves the tension between the siblings by allowing Little Monster to appreciate having the little baby around. Ironically, after all the trouble, Little Monster Did It! - he ultimately helped her accept the baby.

I chanced upon this book at a timely moment. My elder child was becoming increasingly jealous of his younger sibling and was being somewhat mischievous at home - reminding me of a lovable little monster! So when I read the book, the elder child could identify with the mischief that Little Monster came up with and subsequently became his favourite book. He was so fond of it, he decided to remember the words in the book and read it all by himself. He enjoyed playing detective and spotting the discrepancies between truth and fiction by looking at the pictures and figured out that Little Monster was just a convenient scapegoat for the girl. The younger one enjoyed describing what Little Monster supposedly did from looking at the illustration and saw Little Monster as literally a monster!

What do I think this book is useful for?

• 
  
  Teaching kids what's acceptable behaviour and what's not


• A lesson on telling the truth


• Understanding the need to accept change - and that change can be good

Here are some things we did while we read the book and after reading the book. I believe it helps to build their reading, comprehension and speech.

1. Pretended to be a detective and spot where the girl was in the picture and find evidence to show who actually did it.


2. Describe what was happening in the picture.


3. Ask questions to help the child empathise with the characters in the book. For example, "How do you think the girl felt when she heard the baby crying/when she realised that she had to share space with the baby? Why do you think the Daddy was upset?


4. Ask questions to help the child make judgements. Do you think it was a good idea to mess the kitchen? Why?


5. Most important questions - at least for me - Do you think the girl achieved anything by misbehaving? and What happened at the end of the story? What do you think is the lesson in this story?


6. This is what we did after the story. I used Little Monster Did It! to teach them to be responsible for their actions. Here's what I did which helped me manage some of the difficult moments. If either of the kids were up to some mischief, I'd go "And who did this? Is it Little Monster???" And they'd say, "Little Monster didn't do it. I did it". It helped the kids take responsibility for the things they did. At the same time, I couldn't get very angry even if I wanted to! ;)

Here's to Little Monster Did It! A fun read for moms, dads and kids!