Alfred's Book of Monsters

A young boy who detests "delightful things" shakes up teatime. Alfred prefers to spend his time in his study with a book of monsters, gruesome knickknacks perched on his desk and shelves. While Alfred detests such pleasant occupations as teatime, his aunt (the only other human in the book) is horrified by his ghoulish fancies, claiming that "Polite young boys do not hate tea parties, and they certainly do not want monsters!" But Alfred does, and he issues invitations to tea to each of three monsters in his town. For once, Alfred's teatime is "terrible," just the way he likes it. And his aunt?…

Alfred’s aunt wants him to join her for tea each day so that the pair might have a delightful time. However, Alfred does not want to have a delightful time and instead prefers to have a terrible time poring over the pages of his monster book. One day, Alfred has an genius idea to be able to combine both teatime and monsters and sends out a few invitations. The result is amusing, though certainly not the usual teatime. Streed’s illustrations are dark, with sepia tones, giving the book an endearing old-timey and eerie feel. The narrative is broken up with close-up views of Alfred’s monster…

Alfred is happiest locked away in his study, where he can read his book of monsters. Care to take a peek? A turn of the page shows readers the spread Alfred, himself, is examining on Nixies. Sensitive youngsters should return to the shelves before this, perhaps for something charming like Jessie Sima’s Not Quite Narwhal (2017), because the slimy, black-ink creature staring from the page with acid-green eyes might not be their cup of tea. Speaking of which, Alfred finds few things more annoying than having his reading interrupted by his aunt calling him to tea, which is…

Working in a minimalistic palette of browns and grays, Streed introduces a boy who, much to the chagrin of his proper, tea-loving aunt, loves reading about “terrible” monsters in his favorite book. As the book’s ragged, antiqued pages (and Alfred’s hands atop them) fill the spreads, readers encounter the monstrous characters: the cold-skinned, stream-dwelling Nixie; the shaggy, one-eyed Black Shuck; and the Lantern Man—a floating spirit with skeletal limbs who carries a sinister lantern (“the light of one thousand stolen souls”). After another “delightful” tea pushes Alfred too far (“I want…