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welcome to storyline online brought to
you by the sag after foundation i'm
nancy cartwright and today i'm going to
read to you
how i met my monster
written by amanda knoll and illustrated
by howard mcwilliam
one night when i reached under the bed
from my truck
i found this note instead
from the office of mr z monsters meek
here for final test
z
ha
my parents were obviously trying to
trick me into staying in bed
i didn't believe in monsters
so i crumpled the paper
grabbed my truck
and zipped over to my garage
i heard some creaking and rumbling
but i wasn't scared
our house always made noises at night
but then a voice under the bed scolded
stop that stomach rumbling the child
will hear you
voices
stomach rumbling
if this was part of my parents trick it
was pretty cool
i peered into the inky blackness five
pairs of eyes blink back
oh
see
now he knows we're here
the voice sighed one of you has broken
monster rule number one
maintain the element of surprise
this is no trick i thought
there are monsters under my bed
a long-necked yellow monster slid out
followed by four little monsters
rule number two
the yellow one instructed
never block the bed all of you scoot
over
hey
i realized
that one must be their teacher
i sat up straight mesmerized by the
monster parade shuffling across my
bedroom
that's better the teacher monster said
access to the bed is clear now who knows
rule number three the purple monster
teetered on his tiptoes and gurgled get
the child into bed
that's correct genghis and how would you
do that
well mr z
i would
roar my scariest roar
all right give it a go
genghis took a deep breath
opened his mouth
and let out a tiny
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stomach rumbling would have a better
chance of getting me into bed than that
funny little noise i laughed
the child is right said mr z
shaking his head
that was not sufficiently scary genghis
i'm sorry
you're not the best monster for this
child
there was some creaking as genghis
slumped beneath the bed
before i could investigate where gingus
had gone
mr z asked
now who wants to try to get the child
into bed
the orange monster looked at the ceiling
and the red monster looked at the floor
only the green one looked at me
first he stared at my toes
and started drooling
then he took a step toward me
and i heard that rumbling noise again
i sprang into bed so he couldn't get my
feet mr z blinked
very
unconventional gabe
stomach gurgles seem to be what this
child needs what i needed was to make
sure this little gabe monster didn't eat
my toes
right you three the child is now in bed
said mr z
as every monster knows the ultimate
objective is rule number four
who can tell me what that is
the orange monster bounced and squeaked
keep the child in bed until it falls
asleep
correct morgan
and how would you accomplish that
shadow puppet shadow puppets she
squeaked again
gabe whistled through his nose and i
snickered but mr z said
interesting idea
try it
morgan hopped onto my night table and
flailed her arms near my lamp silly
shadows blobbed onto the wall and a
cloud of fluffy fur tickled my nose
morgan stop it once mrs z ordered you're
supposed to scare him not make him
sneeze i'm sorry but you're not a match
either
morgan's arms flopped to her sides and
she scuttled under my bed there was some
more creaking
and morgan was gone
after all that sneezing i really needed
a tissue
suddenly a huge shadow of uncut claws
loomed across my room
awesome i thought
and kind of scary
i froze in place
powerful performance gabe said mr z but
do either of you see a problem oh i know
chop the red monster the child is out of
bed again
correct abigail mr z continued one of
you must get him back in
let's revisit rule number one
maintain the element of surprise
all at once
poof
the monsters vanished
then i heard more rumbling
were they hiding in my closet
making noises to scare me
ha no it was only my stomach grumbling
all this excitement was making me hungry
i dipped her past the closet and peeked
out the door
so far
so good
no monsters
then i stepped over the squeaky stair
and sneaked down to the kitchen
as i reached into the pantry
i heard some chattering behind me
i sure hoped it wasn't that toe-loving
gabe
i yanked open the fridge
it wasn't gabe
it was just the red monster
shivering on the shelf
found you i laughed
nice try abigail said mr z
but this isn't working you're not the
right monster for this child but mr z
she whined it's not my fault he's not
scared of me
i'm sorry abigail
let's go
abigail clumped behind mr z
when i heard the creaking i knew she was
gone
i grabbed some crackers and headed
upstairs
wondering if gabe was gone too
i munched all the way down the hall
then went into the bathroom to brush my
teeth again
when i opened the door a minute later
gabe was definitely
not gone
he was right there
and he was huge
i charged into my room
and slammed the door
when i leaped into bed i knew my toes
were safe phew
i was surprised to hear breathing under
my bed
ragged breathing
and stomach rumbling
hey kid
gabe growled
good to see you
i pulled my covers up tight
now if you don't mind i like to start
the evening with an ominous puddle
of drool
i peeked over the edge of the bed green
ooh spread soundlessly from underneath
then the bed quivered as gabe unfurled
his spiked
tail
well this looks quite promising
mr z noted when i heard some more
creaking i knew mr z was gone
i was alone with gabe
gabe loomed over my bed
and began sharpening his uncut claws on
my bedpost
did you get so big
i gasped
rule number five my friend he explained
people food makes monsters grow
so
thanks for the crackers
got any toes i can munch
i scrunched in my feet so gabe couldn't
get them
this was way better than playing with
trucks
no toes tonight but you can have this i
offered tossing a stuffed monster off
the bed
gabe go for it his soft comforting
snorts filled the room as he snuffled
the toy
i shivered
kid
i think this is the beginning of a
beautiful friendship
no other monster can scare me like you
i giggled
gabe was the monster for me
his snorts and oohs were perfect
i yawned
and shivered again
i was asleep
in no time
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i'll tell you what i really love about
this book amanda knoll
really beautifully
lays it out so a child can understand
how he can
not be afraid it actually empowers him
so that if something is upsetting him he
doesn't have to let that bother him or
get the best of him it's like these
monsters that are under the bed they're
all not so bad
and it puts him more in control of
what's going on in that environment when
he's trying to go to sleep at night
there's nothing that beats a good story
that encourages and inspires a child's
imagination
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you