Zoey and Sassafras 2 – Monsters and Mold

Asia Citro's Monsters and Mold is the second Zoey and Sassafras book, a gloriously gross science story for 6 year olds about a monster with a very embarrassing problem.

What happens

Zoey has been growing mould on old bread in sealed bags. (Poking the bag so it goes spluuuurk is half the fun.) Her cat Sassafras is not a fan.

Then something in the bushes clears its throat. Out steps Gorp, a furry orange monster about as tall as Zoey, with huge ears and two horns.

Sassafras falls in love with him on the spot. Gorp is quite sure the cat wants to eat him. (At one point he hides up a tree.) It happens every single time they meet and it's very funny.

Gorp's problem is his fur. It keeps going mouldy, however often he washes in the stream. The annual Monster Ball is coming up and he's never once been, because he's too embarrassed.

Zoey thinks she's cracked it straight away. Damp fur plus a warm cave means mould, just like her bread! She hands him a towel and waves him off.

Then he comes back. Still mouldy.

That's the best bit of this one. Zoey's first idea doesn't work, so she has to think again. She snips five little fur samples from down by his foot (he's very worried about bald patches) and sets up a proper experiment.

There's a hunt round the kitchen for things that stop food going off. Salt, sugar, oil and vinegar all get their turn. Even Dad wanders in and decides the bags of monster fur she's so busy with are completely empty.

Not every fix goes to plan, and one goes wrong in a way your reader might well spot before Zoey does. She says sorry and keeps going, which is a lovely thing for a child who hates getting things wrong to see.

Gorp cares SO much about what the other monsters will think. Most of us have had a moment like that, where one thing about us feels like the only thing anyone will notice.

It's a short, easy one to share at bedtime, and the words Zoey learns along the way, preservative and hypothesis among them, are explained at the back. A short prologue explains the magic barn doorbell, so your reader won't feel lost.

What to read next

If they haven't met Zoey's very first barn visitor yet, go back to Dragons and Marshmallows. That's where she finds out her mum's secret and answers the doorbell on her own for the first time.