Monster Max's shark spaghetti by Claire Freedman

Ill. by Sue Hendra. Bloomsbury, 2015. ISBN 9781408851555
(Age: 5+) Warmly recommended, Monsters, Holidays, Poetry.
Another in the series including Dragon jelly and Spider sandwiches, this will tickle to he funny bones of young children obsessed with monsters and grisly words describing their habits, particularly about food and eating.
Max and his friends decide to go on a holiday, travelling with Queasy Air, of course. On board they are served moth mash and tapeworm sausages, while at the hotel festooned with spiders, they are served caterpillar croissants. Each four line rhyming stanza will entreat the young to say yuck and erk and other words describing the gross food served up. But it is not only the food that deserves the response. Max dons sunscreen so smelly that bugs come from miles away, and when they get on the Loop the Loop, now called Gloop the Loop, the oddest things happen with gloop engulfing them all. On their final night they are served shark spaghetti, and the animal bites Max on the bottom leaving his tooth embedded.
The laugh out loud words are accompanied by bright breezy illustrations sure to please the younger audience and their passion for slime and slugs, and deliciously sounding words describing the not so pleasant aspects of food.
Fran Knight