The Monster Detector

By Ellen Potter and Felicita Sala

A Sasquatch and a young boy deal with monsters, stereotypes, and cultural misunderstandings in this follow-up to Big Foot and Little Foot.

Hugo is a young Sasquatch. Boone is a young boy. After an unlikely encounter, they’ve become an even unlikelier pair of best friends. After saving up his Monster Card wrappers, Hugo sends away for a special prize in the mail—a Monster Detector! Using the watchlike device, Hugo quickly spots a monster right in his own cavern. Spooked, Hugo heads to school and finds yet another surprise—his friend Boone! Boone announces he wants to go to Sasquatch school, but no human has ever gone before, and not everyone is as happy about it as Hugo. Boone’s first day of school gets off to a rocky start, but Hugo doesn’t have much time to worry before he makes another monster sighting and takes off after the creature. What follows are even more surprises, ones that have Hugo and Boone rethinking what it really means to be a “monster.”

“A lovely story of using empathy to work through culture clashes.” —Kirkus Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781683353867

Ellen Potter

Ellen Potter is the author of more than twenty award-winning novels for children and young adults, including Olivia Kidney, Slob, the Big Foot and Little Foot series, the Piper Green and The Fairy Tree series, the Squirlish series, the Hither & Nigh series, The Humming Room, Pish Posh, and The Kneebone Boy. Several of her books have been chosen by the New York Public Library for their Best 100 Books for Children list and have appeared on numerous state reading lists. Her nonfiction writing book, Spilling Ink, A Young Writer’s Handbook, coauthored with Anne Mazer, was also chosen by the New York Public Library as a Best 100 Books for Children. Ellen lives in upstate New York with her family. For more information about Ellen and her books, visit EllenPotter.com.

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Potter, Ellen, 1963- author. | Sala, Felicita, illustrator.

Title: The Monster Detector / by Ellen Potter; illustrated by Felicita Sala.

Description: New York: Amulet Books, 2018. | Series: Big foot and little foot; Book 2 | Summary: Hugo, a young sasquatch, and his friend Gigi use a Monster Detector to find a Green Whistler, but when Hugo’s human friend, Boone, joins in, surprises are in store. Identifiers: LCCN 2018001832 | ISBN 978-1-4197-3122-8 (hardcover pob) | eISBN 978-1-68335-386-7

Subjects: | CYAC: Yeti—Fiction. | Monsters—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.P8518 Mo 2018 | DDC [E]—dc23

Text copyright © 2018 Ellen Potter

Illustrations copyright © 2018 Felicita Sala

Book design by Siobhán Gallagher

Published in 2018 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Amulet Books® is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

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For Elias and Ilan

1

Monster in a Box

Deep in the cold North Woods, there lived a young Sasquatch named Hugo. He was bigger than you but smaller than me, and he was hairier than both of us. He lived in apartment 1G in the very back of Widdershins Cavern with his mother and father and his older sister, Winnie.

It was Saturday, which was the day that mail was delivered to Widdershins Cavern. Hugo stood at the end of the long line at the post office, waiting to see if his package had arrived. Every so often he would jump up as high as he could.

What are you doing, Hugo? asked a voice behind him. It was his friend Gigi. She was on the small side for a squidge (which is what you call a young Sasquatch) but she had excellent posture, which made her look a little taller. She was holding a letter.

I’m waiting in line, he answered.

No, I mean, why are you jumping up and down? Gigi asked.

I’m trying to see if there’s a large package on the post office shelf, Hugo replied.

If there is, it might be mine. He jumped up again, but he couldn’t see over the heads of all the grown-up Sasquatches in front of him.

What’s in the package? Gigi asked.

I’m not sure, he answered. It’s from Mad Marvin.

Mad Marvin? You mean the guy who makes Mad Marvin’s Monster Cards?

Hugo nodded. "If you collect