The Moral Dilemma of THE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK

Am I overthinking this?

Last week I read the picture book classic The Monster at the End of This Book to classes of kindergarteners. I’ve done this every year for a while. It’s a Read Aloud Hall of Famer after all. I have students follow up by playing The Monster at the End of This Game on PBS Kids (also great).

But I always have a moment when I’m reading it aloud, where I think “Okay, we’re all about to tell Grover to take his fears and shove ’em – because we’re going to keep turning pages”. Is it weird that we torture Grover during the course of this book?

I repeat: Am I overthinking this?

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