5 Awesome, Not Scary Monster Books for Speech Therapy

October is a great time to do a Monster theme, but let's be real…Monsters are a great theme all year long! I have really enjoyed finding new books on this topic and I wanted to share a few with you that I think work exceptionally well for your speech therapy sessions.

When I think of monsters, lots of images come to mind, so I'm bringing you MANY different kinds to choose from today.

The Gruffalo

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson might not be the first book you thought of when it comes to Monsters, but it fits right in! I love this book for so many reasons, but it really works well for verbal reasoning and inferencing…those higher-level skills you can talk through and model for your students to show how clever the Mouse character is in the story. I even have another post you can read HERE.

How to Catch a Monster

I've fallen for this series of books by Adam Wallace, but How to Catch a Monster might just be my favorite one in the collection. The monster under the bed just wants to be friends! I think this choice is great for speech therapy sessions to work on predictions, cause/effect, and social skills for friendships and feelings. I also have a book companion for this one, check it out here.

Bonaparte Falls Apart

For some reason, Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler escaped my attention last year, but no more! This book is so great, I think it might be my new favorite! The story is about Bonaparte the skeleton who keeps losing his bones and he is worried about what will happen when he goes to school. His friends try to help him out with different solutions, but nothing quite works until he finds a new friend to help. The monsters in this book are characters like skeleton, mummy, Frankenstein… it makes it a good Halloween book, but the theme also makes it good for back to school. I really like this one for talking about worries, problems and solutions, and cause/effect. It's also amazing for past tense -ed verbs.

Crankenstein

Crankenstein by Samantha Berger is another new series to me that also has Valentine and Halloween titles. This book is about when ‘Crankenstein' appears…aka when you feel grumpy about something. This book is awesome for exploring emotions and reactions to different situations. The main character ends up meeting another crankenstein and they both end up laughing and playing at the end.

Creepy Carrots

If vegetables can be monsters, then this is a perfect choice! Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds is about Jasper Rabbit who loves to eat carrots…but then he senses they are following him! The end has a fun twist that will lend itself to great discussions with your students about points of view and problem/solution. Obviously, it's also a great choice for any student working on /k, r/ speech sounds too! There's even a follow-up story called Creepy Pair of Underwear!

BONUS Titles I love:

• Love Monster by Rachel Bright – the whole series is great!
• Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly – this one has an app that is really good for your little ones
• The Monster at The End of This Book by Jon Stone – one of the silliest, laugh out loud titles that everyone loves
• Goodnight Little Monster by Helen Ketteman – this one has a few in its series too

What's your favorite monster book?