The Tragic Tale of Dwayne the Eating Monster

The Tragic Tale of Dwayne the Eating Monster

By Valentina Mendicino 
Published by Top That! Publishing

Meet Dwayne the monster, he’s not very good at much except eating and boy does he have an appetite! This funny, lift-the-flap book, is Valentina Mendicino first published book, featuring a very greedy monster! Her second book, The Really Abominable Snowman is about another monster, which I reviewed earlier this year.

In The tragic tale of Dwayne the Eating Monster, we meet Dwayne and the only thing Dwayne loves to do is EAT! One day he decides to try eating new things, and to find out what you need to lift the flap over his tummy. You'll discover he'd eaten a cat followed by the next door neighbour’s dog. His neighbour isn't impressed - but it doesn’t stop him from feeling hungry. The more Dwayne eat the BIGGER he got. Dwayne grew so big that he couldn’t sleep in his bed or tie his shoelaces and couldn’t even fit through his front door any more. But Dwayne doesn’t care, he just wants to keep eating and grows bigger and BIGGER. There’s lots of flaps to lift up and discover whats in his tummy which is lots of fun. 

Unfortunately, as Dwayne gets bigger, so does his appetite, Dwayne starts to eat whole towns and cities! Nothing is safe from Dwayne, not even planet Earth and the Moon. Soon there is nothing left to eat and with a rumbling tummy, something happens that Dwayne thought would never happen - I don’t want to ruin this story, but lets just say there is always a bigger fish in the sea!

Valentina Mendicino’s illustrations are big and bright. Your eyes are drawn to the very pink Dwayne and the many items of food and things you wouldn’t consider food like an iron, a lamppost and even a ladder. 

The recommended age is 3 years and over and children will love lifting the flaps to discover what, or even whom, has become Dwayne’s latest meal. And even though Dwayne is a very greedy and naughty monster, you will feel slightly sorry for him at the end! All in all this is a very inventive story for use in a Lift-The-Flap Book, one that children will want to explore again and again. The tragic tale of Dwayne the Eating Monster is available to buy now at all good bookshops or direct from Top That! publishing online.

A huge thank you to Valentina for providing me this review copy. She even signed it for my 8 month old daughter, Aoife!