Why Do Monsters Eat Whiny Children

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Monsters Eat Whiny Children written and illustrated by Bruce Eric Kaplan is a cautionary book that exposes the consequences for children who excessively whine. The text introduces two children named Henry and Eve who are warned by their day “that monsters eat whiny children” (Kaplan 3). Nonetheless, they continued to whine which led them to be captured by a monster that plans to eat them. The story takes a shift when the monster has difficulty deciding upon the best way to prepare the children. The food preference changes from preparing the children as a salad, grilling them, or making a cake out of them to accommodate the other monsters in the story. However, once everyone comes to a consensus to prepare whiny child cucumber sandwiches, Henry and Eve found a way to escape. The book ends with the monsters eating a cucumber sandwich without whiny children as well as Henry and Eve returning home with a life lesson. …show more content…

Then again, the content is straightforward and lacks an entertainment factor; therefore, the artwork matches the text. Molly Bang states, “Color is one of the most powerful elements used in advertising, in propaganda, and in all visual fabrications” (74). White has usually been associated with innocence, or represents perfection. Taking that into consideration, Kaplan making the book predominately white manipulates the interruption for younger readers. The illustrations showing children being held hostage by monsters goes against their knowledge of the color white. Also, the book including borders on each page emphasizes how the children are trapped and creates a separation between the two versions of white. The color white within the borders creates isolation and emptiness while the property of calmness and comfort is implied outside the

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