Matt Cherry's comedy and wit shines through in this fantastic title for 8+.

Silly in places, this title sells well instore and is fantastic for kids looking for an alternative to Wimpy Kid or Tom Gates.

I am sorry to say that I have really struggled with this book. I had high hopes as have loved so many other books from this publisher but I found the story incredibly hard to follow. I wasn't especially keen on the illustrations either, although I like the use of bright colours and the author's accompanying YouTube drawing videos are a nice addition and will hopefully attract more readers.

I sadly struggled to finish this book. I feel quite guilty about it because I was originally so excited to read it - but the text was too dense and repetitive, I didn't particularly enjoy neither the illustrations nor the graphic, and ultimately didn't find the story compelling enough. The fonts used seemed almost amateurish - chapter titles and subtitles especially (pretty sure those are free fonts on microsoft word?). The book's contents seem aimed at a 5-8 audience but the prose itself has such a bad flow that I can't really see many 5-8 readers sticking with it. Not something I see myself stocking!

An action packed read, full of imaginative monsters and a quest to find monster soup and learn lessons about yourself along the way. Read this with my 9 year old son and he greatly enjoyed it. Many thanks to Netgalley and Firefly press for the ARC.

Thank you so much to Firefly Press and Netgalley for the earc to read and review.

Edwin a young monster Spotter, gets to do something most children can’t, he can see all different monsters and have conversations with them too. Passed down to him by his grandpa along with a monster spotting handbook. Edwin soon finds out that there is a monster catcher on the loose wanting to start a museum of monsters and he’s going after the heart, soul, knowledge and trust of the monster world known as monster soup. Only Edwin can save the monster world.

This was a really fun adventure and humour book, it had me laughing a lot. It’s one that children of around 8 years old are going to really love and enjoy reading, it’s got so much to it and will keep them thoroughly entertained. Meeting so many new monsters, having a fun balloon adventure, having to be smart to travel the four corners of the world and finding out there’s more to monsters than you’d think.

It’s so unique and introduces you to so many new and interesting monsters, you follow along as Edwin has to chase the monster catcher and figure out how to save the monster world. You root for Edwin the whole time, wanting him to figure out exactly the right thing to do.

It had a good deeper message too that the knowledge, soul, heart and trust are all part of everyone, monsters included and that even the meanest of people can change with just a little trust in themselves, a little heart and care for the things around them, knowledge and using what you know to help you grow and most important a soul to lead you down the right path. A good lesson for all to learn.

This was a really sweet, funny yet odd story, it had so many wonderful illustrations throughout and on almost every page, it had fun quotes at the start of each chapter from the monster spotters handbook that Edwin carried with him, it had so many cleverly thought out unique monsters that were fascinating to learn about. This book was so much fun and so funny and easy to read.