Leonardo, the Terrible Monster

Written by Mo Willems

Narrated by Mo Willems and Joey Stack

Another charming and hilarious tale from Mo Willems!

Leonardo is truly a terrible monster-terrible at being a monster that is. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to frighten anyone. Determined to succeed, Leonardo sets himself to training and research. Finally, he finds a nervous little boy, and scares the tuna salad out of him! But scaring people isn't quite as satisfying as he thought it would be. Leonardo realizes that he might be a terrible, awful monster-but he could be a really good friend.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
• Release date: Mar 29, 2007
• ISBN: 9780545521253

Reviews for Leonardo, the Terrible Monster

[lispylibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I LOVE LEONARDO! He is a monster who isn't good at being scary, so he finds the most scaredy-cat kid in the world and scares him, which triggers the biggest blow-up I have ever seen in a picture book. Leonardo decides that he will be friends with Sam because Sam has no friends.

[jenw1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Leonardo was a terrible monster who couldn't scare anyone. In his quest to become scarier, Leonardo discovers that friendship is more powerful than fear. Big picture book with simple, yet perfect illustrations, this is great for a monster-themed preschool story time.

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Omigoodness this was so adorable - funny, touching, not sappy. I loved the expressions and the body language of Leonardo. I loved the spread of him doing research. I love the font and the page design. I love the colors. And, of course, I loved the ending. You know what? It might not be the most momentous book ever, but I loved everything about it and disliked nothing, so I think I just have to give it the full five stars!

[rosa.mill · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An adorable picture book about a monster who can't scare anyone that decides it's better to be a friend. Loved it!

[catalinadiaz-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book for a couple of reasons. I liked how the author added certain aspects to the story that aren't typically used. For example, the author used an asterisk when the narrator said, "He didn't have 1,642* teeth like Tony". At the bottom of the page the author added, "*Note: Not all teeth shown", to assure the reader that the illustrations given do now show all 1,642 teeth. Since this wasn't an informational text, I wouldn't imagine an author using this symbol. It added humor to the story, in an extremely creative way. I also liked the author/illustrator's use of empty space in the book. For example, when Leonardo was researching to find the most frightful kid to scare, he discovered Sam. Turning on to the next page, you can see two large blank pages with a small illustration of sad Sam sitting on the bottom, left corner of the page. This emphasized Sam's sense of loneliness through the empty pages rather than words. Along with this attribute, the author fills in the empty space, on another page, to emphasize Sam's emotions yet again. For example, once Leonardo scares him, Sam begins to cry which makes Leonardo happy because he believes he is the reason Sam is crying. Sam explains, using two entire pages with bold and colored print to express his anger. This shows the authors ability to fill up the entire page with words, rather than illustrations, which is rare for a picture book. The main idea of this book is to accept who you are and not to judge others before getting to know them.

[kate_schulte078 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book would be good to use for reading with expression. I think students will like this book because they will feel bad for the monster.

[emilydrennan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Leonardo was a terrible monster, but in the typical terrible way. Leonardo couldn't scare anyone. He tried and tried to scare, but he just couldn't. He decided to find the kid who was the best possible chance of scaring. After doing his research, Leonardo found Sam. Leonardo tried as hard as he could to scare Sam, and Sam began to cry. Leonardo was so excited that he finally scared someone, but Same revealed he was crying because he had a terrible day. Leonardo was disappointed but decided to comfort Sam instead. Sam and Leonardo became friends, who occasionally scared each other. Just because you are supposed to be good at something, doesn't mean you have to be. Monster's are supposed to be scary, and because Leonardo wasn't, he decided to move on. He quit wasting his time trying to be something he wasn't and focused on what was more important to him, being a good friend.

[pnieme1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book tell the story of Leonardo, a monster who just is not very good at scaring people. He spends the first part of the story struggling to be a good monster. He then finds a very sad little boy and makes him cry. He is so happy he finally was able to scare someone. He then talks to the little boy and finds he was just having a very bad day and he feels badly. They become friends. I enjoyed the pictures in this book very much. The illustrator did a wonderful job showing emotion in the faces of the characters. It also had a very good message, you never know what someone else is going through so you should always be kind to others. This is a great message for children to see.

[kkadal1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked “Leonardo the Terrible Monster”, the central message of which was that it is better to be a friend than to be terribly scary. I liked the book for its humorous language, e.g., “He would find the most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world, and scare the tuna salad out of him!” Additionally, the writing of the book was well-paced; the sequence of events by which Leonardo went from being a terrible monster to a good friend to Sam, “the most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world”, flowed well. The writing in the book would be successful in engaging any reader, as it is fun, entertaining, and delivers a message to which any child can relate, which is being a friend. Lastly, I loved the illustrations that accompanied the text. I felt they greatly enhanced the story by accurately depicting a terrible monster who was not scary, as well as a “scaredy-cat kid” who cried over a multitude of things. In addition, I felt that the illustrations aided in building up the suspense of Leonardo researching whom to scare, and the actual scare taking place. I would love to have this book in my future classroom library. I feel that it succeeds in being both fun and entertaining, as well as delivering a great message, which is choosing to be a friend.

[evandy1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book because of how fun and easy it was to read. It could teach children about emotions, friendship and confidence. The monster in the story is sad that he can't scare anybody, but he realizes he doesn't need to be able to scare people in order to be happy. The little boy in the story befriends the moster regardless of how he looks. Also the little boy talks about all of the problems he had that day that could very much relate to the problems of a young child such as a fight with a sibling or loosing in a game or simply a tummy ache. This book could teach children that it is okay when things go wrong because soon the problem will go away and everything will be alright again. This book is filled with so many small lessons in such short text and large font. Its great for young children and fun to read.

[ekelle8 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Leonardo the Terrible Monster
I have recently read the book entitled Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Williams. It was about a small monster named Leonardo is terrible at scaring people so he as an idea to scare the most timid child he can find. Then he finds Sam and tries to scare him, but when Leonardo final believes he has scared Sam he finds out that Sam was actually upset about a lot of different things that don’t involve Leonardo. Then Leonardo decides to stop trying to be a scary monster and become a friend to Sam.
When reading this book there were many things I liked about the book. I thought the story was very good and could be read to children in many different grades. Also the stories message that it is better help people than scare them. Another thing I liked about the book was the illustrations. I liked that they fight the story and they were very pleasing to the reader’s eye. Lastly I believe that this book can easily be read by any school age student. That is my opinion about the book Leonardo the Terrible Monster.

[agassa1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In my opinion this is and excellent book that teaches children about friendship. The language in this book is very easy to follow, the author uses very short sentences on each page such as "Leonardo tried very hard to be scary". However, the author colors the words that may be difficult to read for children in a different color from the remaining sentence. The writing is paced well and engaging with the way that it is organized on the page. The author uses creative sayings such as "scare the tuna salad out of you" which are fun to read aloud. Leonardo the monster is a well developed character however, he is still a monster so he is not very realistic. However, the little boy in the story is a relatable character to children who may be having a bad day and just need a friend. The story builds up nicely as the monster scares the boy for the climax, however the boy seems to have his own issues which is why he is upset and crying in the book. The conflict is then resolved when Leonardo the monster hugs the boy and offers to be his friend. This book pushes readers to think beyond their own problems or desires to help another person with their own. The big message in this book is that everyone has the potential to be a really good friend, just like Leonardo the monster is to the boy Sam.

[ndange1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are so many reasons why I like this book. I love the illustrations in this story. I feel like it really made the entire book come together and make it special. The pages are huge. Sometimes some pictures would take up two entire pages, while other pictures took up only a quarter of a page. When the picture took up the whole page, the monsters head was huge, to get a point across. When the picture took up only a quarter of a page, the monster was alone and so was the boy. This helped represent sadness, or to only focus on what was being said. The writing in this book is appropriate for many children. Even if a child cannot read, the pictures are great clues to figure out what is going on in the story. (Another reason why I love the illustrations.) The writing was simplistic, but showed enough emotion for a reader to grasp. The main idea of this book was to never judge people for just they way they are, or the way they look, everyone can be friends! I really enjoyed this book.

[jherrm1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In my opinion this is an amazing book. This book is a great book because it doesn't have that much text on each page but it makes you want to continue to read it. The illustrations are simple and perfect for the content, there isn't a lot on each page which allows you to focus on the characters in the story and their development. On some pages there were just pictures which gave you time to feel the emotions that the characters felt without feeling rushed to move on to the next page to read more. This book is great to read to young children because it shows the importance of friendship and how being mean maybe isn't the best way to scare someone, you don't really know who someone is until you take the time to get to know them. This book also shows some comical relief which children will laugh at. I would recommend this book.

[lhanso1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In my opinion this is a great book with very engaging illustrations. The illustrations enhance the story and create suspense by how spread out the character are. For the majority of the book there is only one character drawn per page, so the reader is unaware of how the other character is reacting until you turn the page then vice versa. The writing was similar to the illustrations in that the character shown on the page was the only character the writing addressed, continuing to create suspense in the story. In the end, Leonardo the monster decides that he would rather be a friend to Same instead of trying to be scary, which connects to the big idea in the story that people get more out of being positive and bringing people up than trying to bring others down.

[kradish-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Leonardo is so wrapped up in self-pity about being bad at monster-ness, that he fails to notice what Sam is going through. When they finally talk, Leonardo discovers his true talent- friendship. Charming and funny.

[wickedshizuku · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ha! It was rather amusing reading this. The kid's name was Sam, which so happens to be my name. I also wear glasses just like he does. I related to it even though it was a children's book. My son had a blast reading it, and I think that that's all that matters to a parent.
Cheers and Happy Reading Kids!

[beckiezimmerman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“Leanardo the Terrible Monster” was actually a surprisingly adorable book. I randomly grabbed it off the shelf, and was very impressed with the artwork and story plot. This is a modern fantasy picture book for children from Kindergarten to 1st grade. What I really loved about this book was its awesome pictures and funny story line. I liked how the illustrations flowed with the text, for example, the picture would fill up the entire page if something important was happening, and how sometimes the pictures were farther away from the text. I think the size of the pictures emphasizes the feeling the author is trying to portray, and I think this is a great strategy to engage young readers. Also, this story was very entertaining and funny! This would definitely be a fun read for kids about a monster who wishes he could, “scare the tuna salad out of someone”. This also has the perfect ending, concluding the story with the central message of the importance of being a good friend to the people who need it the most.

[akitso1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book! Mo Willems is a genius. This book about a monster who only wants to be scary is absolutely adorable. I loved everything from the plot, to the illustrations, to the writing. My favorite part, though, was the illustrations. I love how Leonardo the Monster is a small monster with big dreams. In every picture, he is drawn smaller than every other monster to make him seem less scary. I also love the page where the text is large and takes up the entire page. Sam goes on a tangent about why he's crying and Mo Willems decided to make the text big and very rambly to make the reader read it like a child would say it. In the end, Leonardo realizes that it is more important to be a good friend than a good monster. I think that this is the overall message of the book - to be a good friend.

[abigailadams26 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Leonardo was a terrible monster, not because he was terrifying, but because he wasn't, and although he searched high and low for someone to frighten, his efforts were often met with laughter, rather than fear. Then one day, after doing much investigation (market researching comes to the picture-book!), he discovers the perfect target: Sam. But when Leonardo's attack produces the effect he'd been hoping for - a tearful victim - he has a change of heart...

Chosen as one of our October selections, over in the Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme this month is 'witches and monsters,' Mo Willems' Leonardo, the Terrible Monster definitely falls into the kinder, gentler monster-tale variety. The oversized pages, in various muted colors, boast plenty of blank space, with out-sized text and illustrations all the more prominent, as a result. This is a cute tale, with cute illustrations. I think the tall format lends itself to storytelling, particularly with younger, pre-school children. Recommended to little monsters everywhere, and to fans of Mo Willems' distinctive style.

[diamonddog_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Leonardo is a terrible monster... because he isn't terrifying enough! Along comes Sam. Leonardo sets out to prove he can scare Sam, yet actually learns a lesson along the way.

Written and artfully illustrated by Mo Willems, this book is perfect for Halloween time and reading aloud. The kids will worry about Sam, but just reassure them that all will definitely end well!

[ergreenb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book because of the illustrations that tell the story of a not scary monster. He tries to be like other monsters, but decides to be a little boy's friend instead when he is in need. The facial expressions are funny and I like the layout of the book because the pages are so big, with some small illustrations that go along with how the little boy and Leonardo feel.

[shelbya14 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my all-time favorites. Mo Willems is a spectacular author. He creates a humorous story that helps to teach kids important social skills, such as being kind to others and empathy. It is also really funny and in some ways introduces young readers to the antihero. Good for infants through elementary school, in my opinion. The illustrations are great and the language is very accessible .

[anboggs · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Leonardo is supposed be a terrible, scary monster, but he's not. He doesn't have big teeth or scary eyes. He's furry, small, and almost cute. But he still has to scare someone! So he decides to find the most scaredy cat in the world and scare him--and that would be Sam. Leonardo manages to make Sam cry, but he finds out it's because Sam has had a horrible day: his big brother stole his action figure and a bird pooped on his head! Leonardo feels really bad about this and reconsiders whether he's meant to be a terrible monster. The illustrations are drawn in the typical style of Mo Willems and are splashed across the page with relatively few words. Regardless, the books are a hit far beyond "age 3 to 36", Willems suggests on the book. I'd up to about 103.

[kowasuza · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Leonardo is a terrible monster. He cannot manage to scare anyone at all even though he tries really hard. Frustrated, he decides to find the most scaredy-cat kid in the whole world and scare the tuna salad out of him. When he finds the boy Sam, he scares him and the boy cries. Leonardo is happy until the boy says that he didn't scare him. He was crying because of his other problems like a broken toy, a hurt toy, and his lack of friends. So Leonardo decides that if he can't be a terrible monster, he can be a wonderful friend! A wonderful story for children aged 3-6 with simple text and vivid illustrations in shades of brown, blue, purple, green, and pink.

[derbygirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love Mo Willems books not only because of the simple illustratory style, but mostly because of children's reaction to his stories and the ease in which they lend themselves to public storytelling, particularly if you have a bit of dramatic flair. When I read Mo Willem's books to children, it is easy to create different voices for the characters, and the children just eat it up. In this story, I employed fake crying while reading the page with Sam's rant(which they thought was very funny) and at the end I paused before yelling out, "Boo!" and half the children jumped in their seats then burst out in delighted laughter. It is also easy to employ a craft project if need be to Willem's books in the form of elephant or pig "masks" (play outside) . In this book's case the children were able to pick out their choice of a reproduced silly monster, color it, and glue it onto a paper plate with a popsicle stick attached. Puppet shows and monster parades ensued. Willems is able to bring alive a child's imagination and playfulness with his simple drawings and character's dialog and in my opinion that is exactly what a children's author would strive to do.

[elkeursin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is GREAT!!! It is SO fun to read and the story is just AWESOME!!! I highly recommend it!!!

[nicholspdx · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A funny start that turns serious with a happy ending. Has Mo Willems created a book that wasn't exceptional?

[carriedold_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fun book for kids.

[natalialucia_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Personal Response: I loved this story. The illustrations are hilarious and I love when Sam explains to Leonardo all the reasons that he's crying.
Curricular Connection: This story could be read in a kindergarden or first grade classroom. After the story, students could draw their own pictures of monsters.