Giveaway/Review - THE MONSTER Who Ate My PEAS written by Danny Schnitzlein illustrated by Matt Faulkner

About Danny

Danny Schnitzlein was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He has two brothers and one sister.

"As a kid I was crazy about dinosaurs. They were my proof that fantastic things could exist, and that meant anything was possible. I loved Dr. Seuss' books and Stoo Hample's The Silly Book. As I got older, I loved The Hobbit, by Tolkien. My parents made sure we had lots of books and took us to the library frequently. My mother often read poetry to us before bed."

In third grade Danny's family moved to Tampa, Florida where he got the writing bug.

"My English teacher, Mrs. Williams, gave us tough writing assignments, but we didn't know we couldn't do them . . . so we did them."

While in high school, Danny captained a boat on the African Queen Boat Ride at Busch Gardens, Tampa. He played trumpet in his high school band and directed the marching band as Drum Major.

Danny studied creative writing at Eckerd College and television production at The University of Florida. He has had several careers before becoming an author, including: television writer, video editor, artist, and painting instructor.

Danny's new book, Trick or Treat on Monster Street, was inspired by a "what if."

"I wondered, what if there was a place where monsters celebrated Halloween completely backwards from the way we celebrate it? As a kid I was nutty about Halloween. I would dress as a monster and visit every street in my neighborhood. Then I'd dress as a different monster, visit all the houses again, and hope nobody recognized me."

Danny Schnitzlein's first book, The Monster Who Ate My Peas, was inspired by Danny's childhood hatred of peas. The book received two state awards: Indiana's 2004 Young Hoosier Book Award, and Virginia's 2005-6 VSRA Readers' Choice Award. The book was nominated for Readers' Choice Awards in Maryland, Missouri, and Pennsylvania and was selected to represent the state of Georgia at the 2004 National Book Festival.

Danny was chosen by the Georgia Department of Education to be part of its "READ MORE" initiative. Pitcher, John Smoltz, recited The Monster Who Ate My Peas for a special dvd. See the clip at http://www.glc.k12.ga.us/pandp/media/gareadsmore.htm

Danny's second book, The Monster Who Did My Math, was based on another childhood phobia. MATH!

"I'd ask my dad to help with my Math homework. He'd get out his 300 pound calculator. (Calculators were big in those days). Then he'd work all the problems without explaining them very well. Or maybe I didn't listen very well. When I took my homework to school the next day and discovered that many of his answers were wrong, my fear of Math increased exponentially."

The Monster Who Did My Math was listed as one of the Best Books of 2007 by both Parent and Child Magazine and Atlanta Parent Magazine.

Danny also writes scripts and songs for children's educational television, including "SALSA," a show which teaches Spanish, and "The Organwise Guys," a program about good health. In his spare time he loves playing guitar, reading, painting, hiking, and seeing movies. He lives in the Atlanta area with his family and their Golden Retriever.

Visit dannyschnitzlein.com to learn more about Danny's books and find out how you can bring Danny to your school!

About Illustrator

Award winning children’s book author and illustrator Matt Faulkner grew up in a small town just outside of Boston, Ma. Upon graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1983, Matt took a job setting typography in NYC at an ad agency. Boy, was that the wrong job for Matt! Just as the studio manager was about to let him go, the owner of the agency saw the drawings Matt had done on his work table during lunch and hired him to draw storyboards for t.v. commercials! He got his own office and a pay raise! Woohoo!

Not long after, Matt created his first author/illustrated picture book- “The Amazing Voyage of Jackie Grace” with Scholastic. Since then he has created over 30 books for children. He delights in illuminating both historic stories and more fanciful tales and he works very hard not to get the two mixed up. Recently his author/illustrated book “A Taste of Colored Water” received the Comstock Honor award by the Minnesota State University, was chosen as a finalist by the California Commonwealth Club for it’s 2009 Book award and was chosen as a winner in the pre-adolescent category by the National Storytelling Network. The NSNetwork also chose “Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American” (written by Laure Halse Anderson) as the winner of it’s adolescent category in 2009. He is currently working on a graphic novel on the Japanese-American Internment during World War II for Disney/Hyperion Publishing. Matt is married to author and children’s librarian, Kris Remenar, and lives with their 3 children in the lower right hand corner of Michigan.

About Book


A young boy thinks he's discovered a way to avoid eating his peas -- he makes a bargain with a fiendishly funny monster. First the deal is simple: the monster will eat the boy's peas in exchange for his soccer ball. But with each new encounter, the monster's demands escalate. Eventually, our hero faces a daunting decision -- can he conquer his loathing for peas or will he lose his most prized possession?

AWARDS

Young Hoosier Book Award (picture book) ―Association for Indiana Media Educators 2003-2004

Virginia Readers' Choice (Primary winner) ―Virginia State Reading Association 2005-2006

Show Me Readers Award (nominee) ―Missouri Association of School Librarians 2003-2004

Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award (nominee) ―Pennsylvania School Librarians Association 2003-2004

Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (nominee, picture book) ―Maryland Educational Media Organization 2003-2004

Published by Peachtree Publishers


Peachtree Pointers Teacher/Librarian Guide for THE MONSTER WHO ATE MY PEAS

Where to Buy
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


My Thoughts

As the boy sits at the dinner table staring at the peas on his plate his mother very seriously tells him he will not get his dessert unless he eat every single peas on his plate. When she leaves the room a monster that looks like a giant blog of mixed veggies offter to eat his peas in exchange for his soccer ball.

The monster continues to return offering to eat whatever the boy did not want to eat and he always wanted something that was very special to the boy.  

Would you give up things that are special to you just so you would not have to eat something you disliked?  

Could you lie to your parents and tell them you ate all of your food?

This story was fun with all the rhymes that I now have stuck in my head.   

The author have a hilarious imagination to write such a fun rhyming tale.   So did the illustrator in creating the perfect characters for the tale, especially the grotesque monster, the darling baby and cute puppy.

Kids will want to read or have this book read to them over and over again.

I rated this book 5 out of 5.

Disclosure
I received a free copy of this book by Peachtree Publishers for review.  I was in no way compensated for this review.  It is my own opinion.

Now for the giveaway of 

THE MONSTER WHO ATE MY PEAS 

will be 7/17 until 7/31. 

1+. All you need to do is leave a fun comment and

 be sure to leave your email address so 

I can contact the winner.  

2+. I will give you two more points if you 

join by email, GFC or Linky.

The winner will be announced on August 1st.

GOOD LUCK!