The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone

The book was first published in 1971, and has become the best-selling book in Sesame Street’s history with over twelve million copies sold globally. Monster allows the devoted watchers of Sesame Street practice the literacy skills that they’ve acquired with the characters that they’re familiar with seamlessly blending television and publishing and expanding the brand of Sesame Street. Ever since I watched this documentary, I’ve been telling everyone about the ways that Sesame Street challenges the norms of children’s programming and encourages its viewers to engage in their community. I was blown away by how adaptive and innovative Sesame Street was what I had thought was a simple children’s program was really a team of artists and educators working together to push political and social boundaries in order to ensure that children worldwide were educated, not just on their letters and numbers but on empathy, hope, and kindness. About three years ago, I was working as a preschool teacher assistant through AmeriCorps, and I watched The World According to Sesame Street (1996) as an extra-hours activity. But it isn’t just the idea of conquering this childhood fear of Monster that motivated me to pick it up again. In my search for picture books to dive into for this project, I knew I would have to revisit “lovable, furry old Grover” once more. Even though I knew there couldn’t be anything scary at the end, his increasing desperation really made me believe that maybe I should be nervous about how this book would turn out.

Something about how poor Grover would beg you to stop turning the page, even though you knew you had to in order to have a glimpse at whatever horror lay ahead. Obviously, I watched Sesame Street as a kid - my mom actually nicknamed me after one of Sesame Street’s animated characters - but there was something about The Monster at the End of this Book that filled me with dread. It should come as no surprise to you, then, dear reader, to learn that Jon Stone’s The Monster at the End of this Book absolutely terrified me as a young child. That minute-long commercial scared me for five years.

The couple only just dove away from the chandelier, escaping injury (or worse) by seconds.

He grabbed hold of the chandelier, and it came crashing down onto Belle and the Beast. I mean, I was afraid of Stitch until I was in the second grade - there was an old commercial for Lilo and Stitch that began with the iconic ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast, only to pan up to the ornate gold ceiling to see Stitch skittering around on top.

The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone