The Monster in the Backpack Candlewick Sparks

Having trouble with your backpack zipper? Maybe there's a monster inside! Annie warms up to the exasperating but lovable creature she finds in her backpack in this humorous story complemented by energetic illustrations. When Annie unzips her new flowered backpack and finds a monster inside, it's hard to say who is more shocked. "AAAAHHHH!" yells the monster. "EEEEEEKKKK!" yells Annie. It's a predicament, to be sure, as the monster proceeds to gobble Annie's sandwich, stick gum in her boot, and tear up her homework to use as confetti for an "Annie-is-great" parade in the middle of class. With a perfectly tuned sense of comic timing, Lisa Moser captures a young girl's transition from annoyance to affection as a funky and disarmingly open-hearted monster makes an untimely appearance. Noah Jones's colorful and expressive illustrations bring these two charming characters brilliantly to life.

LISA MOSER received a degree in early education with a concentration in reading from the University of Iowa. She taught fifth grade and got the idea for THE MONSTER IN THE BACKPACK— her first book — seven years ago from one of her students, who couldn’t open the zipper on her backpack. " ‘There must be a monster in there,’ I told the girl, and then I began to think, ‘What if there really was?’ "

NOAH Z. JONES is the illustrator of NOT NORMAN: A GOLDFISH STORY by Kelly Bennett, his first children's book. Of THE MONSTER IN THE BACKPACK, he says, "I laughed out loud when I first read Lisa's story. I couldn’t wait to start drawing. It was especially fun to create a monster who wasn't scary or mean but caused mischief unintentionally and with such gleeful abandon."