Two Monsters

A red monster and a blue monster live on opposite sides of a rocky mountain: they can’t see each other, but they can speak through a hole in the rock. One day, they start to have an argument about the sunset which escalates into a period of terrible, violent rock-throwing. As the rocks and the insults get bigger and bigger, the mountain gets knocked to pieces. Yet when the mountain is totally destroyed, the monsters see each other for the first time and realise that they like each other after all.

David McKee’s classic illustration style suits the craziness of the monsters’ argument in this (as always) profound picture book about the human talent for getting into vicious arguments about nothing. In fact, the monsters agree from the start, and it’s the way that they describe the end of the day (or the beginning of the night) that becomes the problem. A perfect picture book for little ones to give them a way to talk about the frustrating feeling of having an argument – and a reminder to grown-ups that very often we can think we are at odds with someone who, actually, pretty much agrees with us after all.