“Seven-year-old Olivia has just moved to a new house—the same house where a lonely monster named Burrufu lives hidden in a secret attic. One night, unable to resist the smell of delicious cookies, Burrufu sneaks out and is discovered by Olivia. The two soon learn that you can find friendship in the most unexpected places.

My Monster Burrufu is a story of overcoming fear, a curse, and a most unusual monster who learns from a little girl how to trust his heart.” ~ Goodreads description

Title: My Monster Burrufu

Author: Alberto Corral

Illustrator: Alessandra Sorrentino

Publisher: Petite Grande Idée

Publishing Date: April 4^th, 2011

ISBN: 061545934X

ISBN-13: 9780615459349

When Olivia spots a monster sneaking a few of her cookies, Olivia’s determined to make friends with him. Armed with spoons, and wearing a metal colander, she ventures to where he lives: in the attic of her new house. But when the flash of her camera scares the monster, which scares her and makes her bump her elbow and start to cry, she discovers something even more amazing: the monster can talk! “Shhh, shh. Please, don’t be scared,” he says. Olivia can’t help herself, she wants to hug and pet him. Introducing herself to the bewildered monster, she finds out his name is Burrufu. And he can grow and shrink back to regular size! And he’s a writer! Olivia is beyond thrilled. Burrufu? Not so much. But a deal is struck: If Olivia keeps Burrufu a secret, she can visit him.

What will happen to this unlikely duo?

Adorable and heartfelt, I love this book! The illustrations throughout are utterly charming, they perfectly capture the whimsicalness and sweetness of the story. They make me want to hug Burrufu just like Olivia does! The message of accepting others for who they are, not judging others by their appearance, and that friendship can be anywhere are creatively and touchingly communicated. The reason why Burrufu actually grows in size at times is heartbreaking and the interactions between Burrufu and Olivia will leave a smile on your face. I cannot say enough great things about this book, from the lovely storyline, to the cute illustrations, to the fun change in font size, I enjoyed it all! For anyone wanting a fun book with a lot of heart, I recommend My Monster Burrufu.

Oh, I also recommend that you have tissues with you when you read this book. Because you will need them.

5 out of 5 teacups!

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Find out more by visiting My Monster Burrufu’s website and Petite Grande Idée’s Twitter.

“Spanish born Alberto Corral is an animator at DreamWorks Animation Studio whose film credits include titles such as ‘Shrek Forever After’ (2010), ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ (2011), ‘Madagascar 3’ (2012) and ‘Planet 51’ (2009) amongst others. In 2009, after he moved to Los Angeles, Alberto started to develop other artistic areas such as screenwriting, film directing and in 2011 he published his first novel, ‘My Monster Burrufu’. He currently lives in Glendale, California, where he has already begun work on his second book.” ~ Alberto Corral’s bio on Goodreads