Not Your Parents' Monster Mash

Boogie Knights
by Lisa Wheeler; illustrated by Mark Siegel
New York : Atheneum Books for Young Readers, ©2008

Boogie Knights is a delightfully silly book, and more than a little deranged. A young prince wakes to find his castle of full of terrible monsters and creatures of the night... all of whom are dancing! One by one, the seven knights who guard the castle are drawn into the party, only to be swept up in the merriment themselves.

The best part of this book is its visual musicality. The imagery begins in gray scale, but as each knight succumbs to the urge to dance, the pages become splashed over with colors and laughter. In the end, everyone ends up dancing the night away; and the seven knights return to their posts drenched in color, while the little prince sleeps with a smile on his face.

Lisa Wheeler and Mark Siegel (who worked together before in Seadogs: An Epic Ocean Operetta) explain the motivation behind the creation of this book far better than I ever could in this handy little video:


Enjoy the momentary tingle of fear, then go dancing!