Monster and Chips

David O'Connell's Monster and Chips is a gloriously gross funny story for 7 year olds about a boy who lands a job in a diner for monsters.

What happens

Joe Shoe has been sent out for chips. Easy, except Grotty Grace the school bully is blocking the door of the takeaway and promising him a thumping.

So Joe runs down a dark alley and ducks through a door he's never noticed before. FUZZBY'S DINER, it says. TRY OUR FAMOUS CHIPS!

Inside is a huge green hairy monster with fangs and yellow eyes. He asks, very politely, whether Joe has come about the job.

The interview is the best bit. How many hands has Joe got? Two? That'll have to do. What are the twelve kinds of sick in Surprise Stew? Joe gets the job because he picks up a spider that sends Fuzzby leaping onto a table (it's always the big ones, isn't it?).

After that it's a new disaster every shift. A milkshake that fights back. Cupcakes that come to life and chant BRAAIINNSS. A cat called Barry who's really a black blob with tentacles and four eyes, and who says meow very unconvincingly.

It's SUPER silly and very disgusting. Pongleberries grow inside corpses and there's snot and bogeys all over the menu. If your reader is the sort who shrieks "EWWW!" and then asks for more, they'll love it.

Then Fuzzby's picked for Monsterchef, a cooking contest on Monster TV. He won't let a human come. So Joe is disguised as a monster with Barry sitting on his shoulders as the head, and off they go to Monsterworld. Somebody there is very jealous of Fuzzby's chips.

One small thing to know. Grace gets described mostly by her size, with jokes about her chins, which feels a bit old-fashioned now.

Joe is a lovely kid to spend time with, though. He daydreams he's Joe the Fearless and then has to actually be brave, which is harder.

What to read next

If a secret place full of monsters is exactly their thing, The Nothing to See Here Hotel is another one to try. Frankie's family runs a seaside hotel for magical guests, and his granny is a troll.