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Monster Goose Nursery Rhymes

by Henry, Josh and Harrison Herz

Enter an enchanted land of mythical creatures where manticores reign and ogres roar-a land of mystery and fright. A unique twist on traditional rhymes of everyone’s youth, “Monster Goose Nursery Rhymes” presents a more sinister approach to these childhood classics, and yet the sing-song nature of the poems renders them playful and jovial at the same time. Little Witch Muffet is not frightened by a silly, little spider; she simply adds him to her stew!

Rotten zombies, giants, dwarves, and goblins mingle with werewolves, centaurs, and fauns. Follow along the skeleton stepping stones, scale up a palisade, claw at the window of a tasty child and bake him into a pumpkin shell. Monsters cook up delicious elvish pie, too! Every kid who has an eensy weensy bit of sense wants a pet with feathers white as snow, who flies like an eagle and bleats like a goat-a hippogriff, of course!

Six forest sprites with four times as many pixies escape from a loaf of bread atop the elaborate table of the fey queen; her feast has flown away! If you enjoy mischief and have a penchant for the morbidly hilarious, the Herzs’ rhymes will satisfy your mythological curiosities.

Larson’s illustrations give new life to these ancient figures, and her artistic style employs the bold lines and colorful movement of an action-packed comic book. The author also includes a “bestiary” with information about the book’s legendary creatures, which hail from Scotland, Germany, Italy, Persia, Haiti, and Scandinavia.

My Review

Do you have kids who love monsters, fairy tales and nursery rhymes? This is the book for you to share with them! You’ll love it even if you don’t have little ones to share it with! This book takes nursery rhymes to a whole new level. The tales are silly with a bit of scary thrown in.

I bet you didn’t know that Mary, who had the little lamb, also had a hippogriff! It followed her to school too. And did you know that Wee Willie Winkie was really a werewolf?! Your kids will laugh and shiver with delight at these re-tellings. The illustrations are wonderful and really fit the story. There is an appendix at the end of the book which tells you about the monsters in the story as well as their country of origin. So if your child asks you what a harpy is, you can turn to the back and tell her that a harpy is from Greek and Roman origin. She’s a winged creature with the head and upper body of a woman and the wings and lower body of an eagle.

I think you will love the rhymes and the illustrations in Monster Goose Nursery Rhymes!

Author Spotlight

Josh, Harrison & Dad’s Excellent Adventure

The astute observer will notice that there are three author credits for MONSTER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES. That’s because my young sons were involved in its creation. This is the tale of how two boys became traditionally published authors.

A few years ago (in a galaxy far away), I wanted to share my love of fantasy with my young sons. They were too little for watching most of the fantasy and sci-fi movie classics, and there are only so many good fantasy books available for that age range. Struck by inspiration one day, I came up with a way to share the joy of entering the magical realms of fantasy. I would write a fantasy book for them.

What I did not anticipate was that my boys would give me feedback on the story. They devised some of the character (Nimpentoad) and creature (Neebel) names, and made plot line suggestions. And who better to help make the story appealing to kids than other kids? So, the goal of interesting my sons in fantasy transformed into also encouraging them to write.

Originally, I only shared the story of NIMPENTOAD with family, for their own enjoyment. I had no thoughts of having the book published. But one day, my sister-in-law suggested that I consider publication because she felt the story was much better than many of the books she was seeing for her similarly-aged kids. I thought about it for a while, and decided to give it a try.

The first step was to find the right artist. Once again, my sons were involved, this time in providing art direction. We would explain in words what each illustration should contain. Collaborating remotely via email and DropBox, our artist would give us a rough sketch, and we would provide feedback on details and color palette. NIMPENTOAD came to life, while my boys added another dimension to their experience.

Given the amount of time that had passed, as well as the anticipated challenges with finding an agent or publisher willing to take a chance on an unproven writer, we decided to indie-publish. The response to NIMPENTOAD was encouraging, and we subsequently indie-published TWIGNIBBLE (an easy reader about a mechanically-inclined sloth, who travels the world helping his endangered animal friends), and HOW THE RHINO GOT HIS SKIN (an updated picture book version of Rudyard Kipling’s classic).

We’ve done book readings and signings at schools, libraries, museums, farmer’s markets, book fairs, and bookstores. My boys are now experienced sales professionals! They know how to handle themselves with new people, and easily sell more books than I do.

Like any good author, I am committed to honing my craft. I belong to critique groups, participate in Tara Lazar’s annual Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo) event, and took a picture book writing class at UCSD. Part of the class curriculum was to draft some picture book manuscripts. Kids love monsters and I love monsters (being a big kid myself), and so the idea for MONSTER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES was born.

As with our other collaborations, I drafted the book, and then had my sons review it. Then it went through my critique group and more revisions. I subsequently attended the Orange County Editor’s Day event hosted by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). MONSTER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES won best picture book. After that, it was time to query agents and editors. Happily, several editors expressed interest. We chose Pelican Publishing, and the rest is history.

Writing rhyming picture books is very challenging. I jokingly encourage newbie writers to visit www.DontDoRhyme.com (not a real website). The irony is not lost on me that my debut traditionally published picture book is in rhyme. My only excuse is that I didn’t have to invent the meter, I just had to twist the words to fit the existing meter.

If you want to interest your kids in mythological creatures, or fantasy literature in general, give MONSTER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES a look. Just take care – MONSTER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES is a gateway book to THE LIGHTNING THIEF and, eventually, to THE LORD OF THE RINGS.

About the Authors

Henry Herz writes fantasy and science fiction for children. His debut traditionally published picture book, Monster Goose Nursery Rhymes, is due out from Pelican Publishing in January 2015. Henry and his sons have also indie-published four children’s books, including Nimpentoad (early chapter book, author) – reached #1 in Kindle Best Sellers large print sci-fi & fantasy, and was featured in Young Entrepreneur, Wired GeekDad, and CNN; and Beyond the Pale (young adult anthology, editor) with short stories by award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors Saladin Ahmed, Peter S. Beagle, Heather Brewer, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Kami Garcia, Nancy Holder, Gillian Philip & Jane Yolen. Reached #2 in Amazon Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies.

Henry is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), and his picture book, Little Red Cuttlefish, won Editor’s Choice at an SCBWI Orange County Editor’s Day. He writes articles about children’s literature and maintains a popular blog on KidLit, fantasy, and science fiction at http://www.henryherz.com. Henry participates in literature panels at a variety of conventions, including moderating the Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2014 with New York Times bestselling author panelists David Brin, Jonathan Maberry, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Jason Hough and Marie Lu. Henry reviews children’s books for the San Francisco Book Review.

Artwork by Josh appeared in the Mar/Apr and Jul/Aug 2014 issues of Cicada Magazine. Like their father, both boys are big fans of fantasy, science fiction, and the annual San Diego Comic-Con convention. They have an entrepreneurial bent too. They’ve started three web-based businesses selling LEGO party favors, custom cast bases for Warhammer, and painted concrete yard sculptures.