The Monsters of Morley Manor by Bruce Coville
Magic Carpet Books, 2003 (reprint edition)
ISBN-13: 978-0152047054
Available: New and Used 

    The Monsters of Morley Manor isn’t as much of a scary book as an adventure book with monster characters in it.  In the book, Anthony and his little sister Sarah buy a box filled with five miniature monster figures: a lizard man, a medusa, a wolfman, a vampiress, and a hunchback. When one of the figures gets wet. it starts to come alive, and thus begins an adventure involving aliens, giant talking frogs, and ghosts.  Coville fits a lot into this book and while it works just fine, it seems like it would have been possible for him to have a book just with the five monsters and without the alien story line.  A good book for monster loving kids.    Ages 9-12.

Reviewed by Dylan Kowalewski

Editor’s note: This review first appeared on our main site in 2006. I very much still recommend it for monster-loving kids.