Guy Bass’s The Monster Hunter is a funny, rip-roaring adventure for 8 year olds about a bet-mad explorer who turns up at Castle Grotteskew wanting a real monster to take home.<\/p>\n
Stitch Head likes boring. Boring means nobody’s running for their lives. So when Arabella takes him stargazing on the castle walls, the last thing he wants to spot is a giant flying egg. Heading straight for them.<\/p>\n
It’s actually a homemade flying machine, and out climbs Dotty Dauntless. She’s enormous and silver-haired, with a safari hat, a hunting knife and a pistol on her hip. She’s never said no to a bet in her life.<\/p>\n
Her explorers’ club has bet her she can’t find a real monster before she turns sixty. That’s two days away. Unluckily for Dotty, the creations are as gentle as kittens these days (Stitch Head’s potions see to that).<\/p>\n
Then the Creature leaps out roaring, because it’s playing a game called Let’s Pretend We’re Monsters. Dotty shoots it with sleeping darts, ties it up and decides it’s PERFECT. Soon there’s a cage in the courtyard, pulled by her very own elephant.<\/p>\n
So Stitch Head, who usually ducks behind Arabella, makes a bet of his own. He’ll find an even MORE monstrous monster before the Creature wakes up. The trouble is that most of the castle would rather be fishing or making scatter cushions. And if he loses, Arabella’s precious kicking boots go to Dotty!<\/p>\n
Dotty is brilliant fun. Nearly everything she says turns into a wild tale (a year learning to sniff things out with blindfolded monks, anyone?). She guesses Arabella’s name in seconds and decides Stitch Head is a pet called Scamp.<\/p>\n
Underneath the jokes, Stitch Head is worried that the outside world keeps barging into his castle. Watching someone so shy decide a friend matters more than staying hidden is very sweet.<\/p>\n
Worth knowing before you hand it over. Dotty’s pistol fires tranquilliser darts rather than bullets, but she uses it on the Creature more than once. A little rhyme at the very start tells of a boy called Albert who climbed up to the castle and vanished. A child who likes their monsters with plenty of jokes will probably take both in their stride.<\/p>\n
This is the sixth Stitch Head book, and the earlier adventures are best read in order. The place to begin is the very first book, Stitch Head.<\/p>\n
For another hairy monster with a stranger on his trail, try The Unimaginary Friend. Ben imagines his monster friend so hard that the Gorblimey comes up out of the sea one foggy afternoon. Then a very odd man in a three-peaked hat says he’s come for Ben.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guy Bass’s The Monster Hunter is a funny, rip-roaring adventure for 8 year olds about a bet-mad explorer who turns up at Castle Grotteskew wanting a real monster to take home. Stitch Head likes boring. Boring means nobody’s running for their lives. So when Arabella takes him stargazing on the castle walls, the last thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15009,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8635,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Unimaginary Friend","lr_seo_hook":"Stitch Head bets big to keep the Creature out of an explorer's cage.","lr_series_id":367,"lr_series_name":"Stitch Head","lr_series_position":6,"lr_series_label":"","lr_author_order":"362"},"book_tag":[23],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[362],"class_list":["post-15010","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-funny-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-guy-bass"],"yoast_title":"The Monster Hunter by Guy Bass | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Stitch Head bets big to keep the Creature out of an explorer's cage. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n