The Monster at the end of this e-Book

January 18, 2006 3:54 PM

The Monster at the end of this e-Book. Grover, it turns out, is among the best of the web. And since we're already here, little Robert's and Haley's reimaginings via "Kay's Home Page" (Grover lesson plan included).
posted by nobody (53 comments total)

Holy fucking shit!
This has brough back memories.
You've made my day, man.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:59 PM on January 18, 2006

And inspired unintentional haiku! Nice!
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 3:59 PM on January 18, 2006

It's not every day that you realize your favorite book ever in the whole wide world is one you haven't read since you could read. Thanks. I loved that lovable furry bastard.
posted by gleuschk at 4:03 PM on January 18, 2006

That. Was. AWESOME!
posted by JeffK at 4:07 PM on January 18, 2006

I'm afraid to keep turning pages...

(Thanks a million for this!)
posted by brundlefly at 4:11 PM on January 18, 2006

I loved this book too, even though I was way too old for its intended age range (I think I was nine when it first came out). It was actually my little sister's copy, and I'd put aside my latest Encyclopedia Brown book and grab this one out of her room.

Oh, I am so embarrassed ...

It's still in print, too -- hope they don't get a cease-and-desist.
posted by chuq at 4:14 PM on January 18, 2006

BEST. FPP. EVER.
posted by keswick at 4:15 PM on January 18, 2006

Oh, how I loved this book. Gleefully tearing down Grover's frantically-built defenses, and watching him beg for mercy as we hurtle toward his doom (so he thinks)...

Hey, that's kind of messed up.
posted by Guy Smiley at 4:15 PM on January 18, 2006

Ha! My mom just mailed my childhood copy of this book to my three year old, who thinks it is the height of comedy.

I'm going to add this link to my kid's bookmarks (yeah, she's got her own, she's a 21st century baby).
posted by padraigin at 4:20 PM on January 18, 2006

In case I didn't already have a MetaCrush on nobody, I do now.

Thanks, man.
posted by youcancallmeal at 4:24 PM on January 18, 2006

I LOVED this book as a kid, it was absolutely my all-time favorite. Thanks so much for posting it. :)
posted by Malor at 4:25 PM on January 18, 2006

Does this book remind anyone else of the Milgram experiment? The way Grover keeps pleading with the reader not to turn the page....
posted by mr_roboto at 4:28 PM on January 18, 2006

My husband and I both loved this book as kids. We bought it for our daughter before she was even born. And the really, really cool thing about it is that it is one of the few books that is as fun for the reader as it is for the listener.
posted by jrossi4r at 4:31 PM on January 18, 2006

I fucking loved this book as a child.
posted by AMWKE at 4:37 PM on January 18, 2006

Best book evar!
posted by avocet at 4:38 PM on January 18, 2006

Grover rules! Elmo drools.
posted by longsleeves at 4:44 PM on January 18, 2006

Cool...but the reimagings were dumb: "What would Grover had done if there really had been a monster at the end of the book?" Umm...there was a monster at the end of the book.
posted by duck at 4:44 PM on January 18, 2006

Thanks. I had this book, along with many volumes of the Sesame Street Library, and I loved it.
posted by interrobang at 4:55 PM on January 18, 2006

You all owe the Henson estate $12.00.

Great link.
posted by furtive at 4:55 PM on January 18, 2006

I've been thinking of naming my (soon to be) first child Grover (if it's a boy). More out of respect for the 22'nd and 24'th president as well as the furry monster, and not so much Grover Norquist.
My parents think it's a bad idea from the standpoint that there has been a popular monster named Grover. People still name their kids George, though.

Maybe I'll just stick with Zebulon.

Also, didn't a few people get their panties in a knot the last time a copyrighted book was posted in it's entirety on the blue?
posted by Balisong at 5:00 PM on January 18, 2006

great memories...
posted by dan g. at 5:02 PM on January 18, 2006

Wow, flipping through that gave me some serious deja-vu. I checked with my mom, and that was one of my first books. I'm surprised that this stuck out so much in my memory.
posted by Fully Completely at 5:03 PM on January 18, 2006

You all owe the Henson estate $12.00.

Or at least $2.99 plus shipping.
posted by Robot Johnny at 5:07 PM on January 18, 2006

Yea, the kid's part could have been more informed. I love kids drawings but these were far from nailing it.

Oh, cool post!
posted by snsranch at 5:08 PM on January 18, 2006

Anyone have any guesses as to how the pages were captured? The colors look great, and since it's a pretty wide page I was wondering if it was a photo setup rather than a scanner...
posted by VulcanMike at 5:26 PM on January 18, 2006

Oh oh oh, I forgot about this book. One of my favorites growing up, and now I have kids who have not yet begun to read. I am picking up this book immediately.

My favorite line:

Do you know that you are very strong?
posted by davejay at 5:43 PM on January 18, 2006

Just the other day I was trying to convince a coworker that The Monster at the End of This Book was one of the greatest works of literature in English. Although he is the same age as me, he had never heard of it, a fact I found disturbing.
Thanks for the link. I love the 70s art work - groovy.
posted by AndrewStephens at 5:56 PM on January 18, 2006

Do you know that you are very strong?

nobody, this made my day. I haven't read this book since I could read.
posted by cmyk at 6:12 PM on January 18, 2006

I thought the monster at the end of the book would be Trogdor. Actually, I loved reading this book to my kid when he was two or three, long long ago. He loved it too; thanks for the memories.
posted by LeLiLo at 6:21 PM on January 18, 2006

Holy cow. I'm so ashamed I hadn't thought of this book, which I loved when I was little, for years.

I have to say, though, that the little arrows you click to turn each page aren't nearly as much fun as your uncle insisting he needed your help to turn the one with the brick wall on it. That's the kind of stuff that makes a childhood idyllic.

Thanks, nobody. I'm probably gonna buy this book now, which I wouldn't have if I had gone on not thinking about it. So all that copyright sketchiness doesn't apply to me.
posted by PhatLobley at 6:42 PM on January 18, 2006

The original "Don't Press."
posted by TwelveTwo at 6:43 PM on January 18, 2006

To add to the pile-on, yeah it was my little brother's book but I always loved paging through it too. I could remember just about the exact sequence and the general composition of each page but I had forgotten how seventies-style a lot of the voice balloons and stuff were. I guess because they weren't "seventies-style" at the time...
posted by soyjoy at 6:53 PM on January 18, 2006

Am I the only one who had an audio version of this on a special Sesame Street tape recorder/reader thing?

"STOP! Do not press the red button!!!"
posted by booksandlibretti at 7:15 PM on January 18, 2006

Thank you. This is awesome. It ws one of my favorite books as a child. It was the first book my nephew ever read to me.

I might get a little emotional.
posted by nadawi at 7:16 PM on January 18, 2006

I remember taking this book to kindergarten, our teacher would ask each of us to bring in a book that she would read at storytime. I remember her being confused because I kept insisting she read the the cover of the book (usually she'd just skip to the story.) I couldn't seem to convince her that she would ruin the whole book if she didn't read it.
My two year old has figured out the joke and isn't interested in it anymore. If i pick up this book he just rolls his eyes and says "Monster is Grover!" Apparently he thinks I'm dense.
posted by muddylemon at 7:34 PM on January 18, 2006

Actually, tooling around the site, it appears to belong to the illustrator, Michael Smollin (or a family member.) There's a full catalogue of his Sesame Street books. (WARNING: some of you may be enraged by this.)

Is it still published as a Little Golden Book? It was one of many in my collection. Also, the Sesame Street Library -- the best part about books from Safeway is that they SMELL like Safeway!
posted by evilcolonel at 7:58 PM on January 18, 2006

Wow, that's spectacularly awful, evilcolonel. I am indeed enraged. (And more than a little weirded out by Elmo in his "pusher" role.)
posted by gleuschk at 8:17 PM on January 18, 2006

I have to say, though, that the little arrows you click to turn each page aren't nearly as much fun as your uncle insisting he needed your help to turn the one with the brick wall on it. That's the kind of stuff that makes a childhood idyllic.

Damn straight.

And it has to be read aloud using a Grover voice.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:18 PM on January 18, 2006

(WARNING: some of you may be enraged by this.)

Do not click that link. It leads to an awful Elmo-ised version of the book. And lord knows why, but Sesame Street decided it was a good idea for Elmo to not listen to his elders. Nothing better than teaching one's kids to misbehave!

I hate Elmo. I hope the person -- no, it must be "persons," he has all the qualities of a committee-designed idea -- who created Elmo has suffered for it. Bad deeds should not go unpunished.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:21 PM on January 18, 2006

That was my favorite book as a child, and when I was in college, I saw it on the shelf one day and I bought it, knowing I would someday read it to my own kids. Now my 4-year-old loves it just as much as I did.

*sniff*

Hooray for Grover.
posted by eleyna at 9:12 PM on January 18, 2006

!
posted by squarehead at 9:46 PM on January 18, 2006

Yep, they still publish the book; I buy copies to put in baby shower packages so I can start the kids off right.
posted by stefanie at 10:06 PM on January 18, 2006

Thanks! my grand kids are due for a visit, and this is great.
posted by hortense at 10:16 PM on January 18, 2006

I had completely forgotten about this book. Thanks! I loved it at a kid.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:30 PM on January 18, 2006

This book is the reason why I say Grover is like the Wolf Man--neither of them like being monsters.
posted by brujita at 12:21 AM on January 19, 2006

Mahna Mahna.
posted by pracowity at 2:05 AM on January 19, 2006

Loved it as a kid, and bought a copy for my nephew a couple of years ago. It's great to see that I'm not the only one with such fond memories!
posted by malocchio at 7:20 AM on January 19, 2006

Best use of the wikipedia spoiler warning, ever.

Link.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:12 AM on January 19, 2006

A political metaphor starring Grover and Elmo?

Red, Blue, finger-pointing, name-calling...
posted by GuyZero at 10:02 AM on January 19, 2006

Holy cow, I haven't seen that thing in about 20 years. I loved that book! Thanks.
posted by Sibrax at 11:26 AM on January 19, 2006

Great book!

This one and "Where The Wild Things Are" are the only two childhood books among my top-30 all-time favorites.
posted by darkstar at 12:00 PM on January 19, 2006

Grover has a posse.
posted by deusdiabolus at 1:28 PM on January 19, 2006

Metafiction picture books. The world needs more of them.

I have photos of my mom reading this book to me. Okay, I was fifteen, but I was shooting a portrait of her, and she picked the book.

It's still one of her favorite books to read aloud.
posted by jb at 5:45 PM on January 19, 2006