Funny kids bedtime books to tame a child's fear of monsters

Hello my friends of the Omschool. Did you know, teacher Omi wasn't always an adult? I was a little kid who was often scared of the dark and of the monsters which I was sure inhabited it. But I learned, from my emotional support books how to conquer some of those fears. Books provide what we call bibliotherapy. By reading certain books and stories we find help for mental health issues, such as fear. Kids books offer bibliotherapy by showing children in similar situations safely resolving struggles. And when they use humor, all the better. If your child fears monsters, likely its worse at night. Here are funny kids bedtime books on taming fear of monsters. 

Harry and the Terrible Whatzit (Dick Gackenbach) We kids believe that the basement is a place where awful things live. My grandma used to tell me to fetch a can of peaches for her while she counted. As if THAT was going to help! I'd run so fast I tripped up the stairs. So I really feel for Harry, when he worries that his mother has been taken or worse by a terrible whatzit in the basement. Our brave hero goes looking for her and finds that you can't judge a monster by its two heads. Absolutely hilarious denouement! 

There's a Nightmare in my Closet (Mercer Mayer) Who hasn't been afraid of the thing in the closet and been told "there's nothing there"? My grandfather humored me and closed the door but even then, I knew as did the kid in this book that I was right, there's something inside! But good news for us when IT turns out to be more afraid of us than we are of him.  I absolutely love the annoyed look on the kid hero's face as he comforts the crybaby creep! Here are some free printable lesson plans on Nightmare in the Closet. 

There's Something in the Attic (Mercer Mayer) Along with the dreaded basement, the attic is another scary place where frights of all kinds lurk. In another case of  mistaken monster identity, it appears there IS something in the attic as we've suspected but he identifies as the fearful rather than the feared. And it takes a brave cowgirl to calm him. 

There's a Monster Under my Bed (James Howe) Monsters have a lot of hiding places and under a kid's bed is their favorite. My preferred monster-prevention method was to cram so much under the bed that a monster wouldn't fit. But Simon can't so he must face the under-bed-dwellers, man to monster. You'll love the outcome. 

Little Monster series. Mercer Mayer really knows his monsters and there could not possibly be a cuter monster than Little Monster unless it's his (sometimes annoying) little sister. Kids can address monster fears by seeing that he's just one of the gang. And Little Monster has to do some bully-busting of his own with big Yally who also turns out to be not as brave as he presents. 

Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak) What is is with monsters not living up to their reputations? In this classic story, Max not only tames but rules the whiny baby wild things! Because really kids are the most wonderfully wild things of all. 

Go Away, Big Green Monster! (Ed Emberley) The monster in this interactive book is real and really scary UNTIL a child takes him down to size. My youngest daughter loved dismantling Big Green Monster and telling him not to come back unless SHE said so. 

Read these books to your kids before bed or in the classroom at school. Allow for lots of discussion. And see my other articles for more bibliotherapy on bullies, conflict resolution and more. 

Hardy Boys alternatives: Mystery books for kids with believable young detectives from my childhood

Hello my friends of the Omschool! Teacher Omi here with more great books for you to enjoy during National Reading Month and all year long! I've always loved mystery books since basically birth. But I find series like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew tedious. The mysteries are believable but the young detectives are not. They are too perfect. 

There's nothing they can't do and they have everything given to them. I mean seriously, a plane and a boat? What normal teen has those at his disposal? They don't have jobs to slow them down and there's  handy housekeeper Hannah cum cook cum servant to do everything for them. And there's always a the dumb friend to showcase their cleverness. All they have to do is show up, cast their eye over the evidence and boom! Case closed. 

No Such Thing as a Witch and The Wednesday Witch (Ruth Chew) These books along with other Ruth Chew books, take a second glance at witches and especially how and why women get labeled as witches. They unashamedly acknowledge that witches exist but they don't always look and act the way we profile them. The kid "witch-finder detectives" in these books are gullible but likable and believable because they are so. 

Worst of all, the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew also seem to be above all rules. No wonder Frank, Joe and Nancy always get their man: they don't have to follow normal police procedural that other crime-solvers must comply with. They break the law themselves, all the time and get away with, well, murder, as it were. And get hailed as heroes. So today we're going to explore mystery books for kids with believable law-abiding young detectives. These kid sleuths have to follow the same rules everyone else does and to my mind, makes them better detectives.

Encyclopedia Brown (Donald Sobol) This series features short pithy mysteries with a gang of kid sleuths who form a detective agency, led by the titular character Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, so named for his encyclopedic knowledge on many subjects. He misses being savant-ishly annoying but does tend to show up adults too much. And he's lucky to have a dad as chief of police. My favorite part is the solve-it yourself feature where readers are invited to offer solutions and then turn to the back to find out whodunit. 

The Three Investigators Pete, Bob and Jupiter are my absolute most-bestest top picks for kid detectives. These books were written, beginning in the 1960s and carrying on to the 2000s by several different authors. My favorites were the series creator Robert Arthur, his protege William Arden and Nick West. M. V. Carey had a few good ones but veered into supernatural which is not in keeping with the original concept. The OG Three Investigators books always stayed grounded in reality which made them much more appealing as mysteries. No matter how spooky or spectral there is always a "man in a mask" behind the mayhem. 

I also like the characters because they live in the real world where people have jobs and responsibilities. They have to work for things. Bob has a job at the library. Pete and Jupe work at Uncle Titus's junkyard (oh what a paradise THAT place is). Their detective agency is cobbled from old and reclaimed stuff and is hidden in the junkyard, accessible by four secret entrances. You cannot get cooler than that. 

When they get hurt, the injury doesn't disappear in the next books. Bob's leg injury plagues him for quite some time. Jupiter is the genius but Bob and Pete lend their expertise too. Pete does tend to do a lot of the heavy lifting, but he's not the token dumb friend, by any means. . And these young men are respectful as well as clever. Many of their adventures feature people from different cultures and traditions. So readers get a lot of insight into other traditions as well as Hollywood and L.A. history. 

I first discovered "The Three Investigators and the Talking Skull" at around age 8. Then went looking for more. The best book IMO is the first "The Secret of Terror Castle." But all the rest of Robert Arthur's are superb as well. The mysteries are well-developed and unique.