I happened upon this book quite by accident while I was at work in the library. (I find a lot of great books this way.) It caught my eye right away. How could it not with a title like that? Dear Big, Mean, Ugly Monster was written by Ruth Marie Berglin and illustrated by Carl DiRocco. It was published in 2005 by Child & Family Press which is an imprint of the Child Welfare League of America. In an earlier post we discussed Karen Kaufman Orloff’s book I Wanna Iguana which features a child passing notes back and forth to his mother, trying to convince her to let him have an iguana as a pet. Dear Big, Mean, Ugly Monster also uses the idea of note passing, but in a very different way. This child passes notes back and forth to the monster who lives under his bed. He’s afraid of the monster at first, but by the end of the story, he has a new friend. I really enjoyed this book. It’s funny (the illustrations add to the humor) and clever and would be a great tool for parents to help children overcome their fears of the monsters that might be hiding in their rooms at night. When I was a kid, I had this strange feeling that a witch lived inside the air vent in my room. As you grow up, you of course get past these fears, but I believe that most children would benefit from reading a book like Dear Big, Mean, Ugly Monster.