Ticklish Monsters, Donkey-Headed Snakes and More Incongruent Beasts

A class from Queensgate Foundation Primary on the Isle of Wight sent in some beautifully illustrated monster descriptions. Here are some highlights:

Five children (Angel, Ella, Emilie, Sapphire and the creator of Frizzy) designed monsters with a weakness for being tickled. I like this idea because it's funny. Imagine a big, fierce, bone-crunching beasts brought to its knees by a simple tickle? This would be useful in a book because we could make readers scared and just when they think they can't take any more terror ... tickle!

I really like the sentence 'He’s as smelly as a welly'. It's a simile and it rhymes. What else could you want from a description?

Angel had a brilliant idea for her monster species' job:
'Her job is at the rainbow factory. She has to trick people that see a pretty rainbow into entering the building. Once inside the colour is sucked from the people.'

I love the idea that rainbows are made in a factory. How do they get rainbows to all the different places that rainbows can be seen? Do they have a van? Are their rainbow factories all over the world?

It's interesting to think that the beautiful rainbow has something sinister behind it - colour sucked from people!

The terrifying creature above is by Cameron. It has many weapons.

'His monster weakness is that he is petrified of the dark and when he’s all alone in the dark he starts to cry.'

This weakness by Chloe is funny for the same reason that a ticklish monster is funny - it doesn't match the typical image of a fierce monster. When something doesn't fit what you'd expect, it's called 'incongruence'.

'His bad habits are 1: picking his hairy nose and eating the big, green greasy, bogeys, ewww! 2: pooing in public and not even bothering to say sorry or pardon me!'

I wonder if Chloe has been reading Mr Splendiferous and the Troublesome Trolls? Bruno Super-Troll-Knobbly-Foot also has a bad habit (see picture below by my illustrator, Katie).

Conner's monster, Rodert, eats his own ear wax!

'Fishlegs can change size - when he is angry he grows to an enormous size.  When he is happy he goes as small as a cute bunny that would fit in your pocket.'

I like this idea from Harrison. Imagine if you tried to keep Fishlegs as a pet and you put him in your pocket? If you annoyed him, you'd feel your pocket stretching, and stretching, and ... pop. He's burst out.

But then again, Fishlegs likes to shoots lasers that could crumble a mountain and destroy villages. So you probably shouldn't keep him as a pet.

The monster above loves burping until his eyes water and eats his own ear wax. Moving swiftly on ...

'Fat Phil can hold two double decker buses above his head one in each hand for as long as he pleases.'

This is good because it show the readers how strong Fat Phil is, rather than just telling.

A ticklish dragon? Now that is incongruent! 

Ronnie wrote about Mr Blue, a monster that 'has got a pet snail could Speedy and he sits on his shoulder'. I really like the idea of a monster with a pet that lives on him. I write about a troll who has a rat living in her hair, so shoulder snails appeal to me.

'The Donkey-Headed-Snake-Fly is an evil snake that has a donkey head and wings.'

Ella's idea of a snake with a donkey's head is hilarious. Every time I try to imagine it, I find myself giggling. It's because you don't expect a donkey's head on a snake. Wow - this class are really good at incongruence!

Trash Monkey's favourite meal is mouldy banana with gone off cream. This is a good example of showing a reader how disgusting a monster is, instead of just telling. Well done Sapphire.

And in case Class 6LR are wondering what happened to Tyler's monster, Tigs, I've written a whole post about a new species based on Tigs. See Meet The Tig.