by Bethan Woollvin
 
An inside cover map of the Alpine Kingdom gives the lay of the land for this monstrous adventure: an Alpine castle; a Frightful Forest; the Sea of Secrets; a Lake of Mystery; the Peaks of Peril. Now, we just need our hero, Bo the Brave, to hunt down the monster. First, she must get around her “stinky brothers” who insist she’s far too little for such a task. Next, there are huge terrifying monsters to get around (a Griffin, a many-tentacled Kraken, a dragon) except, when Bo confronts them, none of them are scary at all. Instead, they all join forces, on a quest to rescue little Smoky, the dragon’s stolen baby. Which is when they come across the real monsters…
 
Stars a courageous girl, full of both brain and brawn who outsmarts and out-braves her dismissive brothers. Some other gentle messaging about not making assumptions based on appearances and protecting wildlife’s creatures, no matter how scaly or spiky they are.
 
Woollvin says she was inspired by folklore and traditional tales to recreate a monster from each of the four elements. At the end there is a mini list of beasts who didn’t quite make the list- look out for the North American Hodag! As always, Woollvin’s distinctive, minimal colour, gouache, palette gives the illustrations a wonderfully fresh, retro-printed, look. Age 4-7, Paperback 26pp
    
Themes: Gender Equality