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Mariam Gates, author of Good Morning Yoga, selected these five family favorites.

#10 The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, illustrated by Mike Smollin (1971)

For the pure joy of watching your audience’s faces as you read this aloud. – DaNae Leu

I had to look up the author – don’t think I ever read his name! I just thought of it as by Sesame Workshop. – Robin Parry

“Don’t turn the page”. I’ll never forget the first time I read this to my daughter. She really didn’t want me to turn the page. And then she laughed at the end. – Joanne Rousseau

I remember this book from my childhood more than any other. - Pam Coughlan

In this poll we’ve seen a lot of votes sink sink sink from their previous places.  Now, at last, here’s a book that’s gone up up up in the world.  Previously holding down a spot at #22, Stone’s title is remarkable partly because it not only introduced so many of us to the

You will not find The Monster at the End of This Book in The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature.  It does not appear in 100 Best Books for Children, or within the pages of Nancy Pearl’s Book Crush.  It has never won a Caldecott.  You cannot find it on most Top 100 Picture Book lists, nor in New York Public Library’s collection.

And yet . . . .

And yet here we find at #22, almost making it into the Top 20, the one and only truly successful Sesame Street book ever to touch the hearts and minds of readers everywhere.  Sesame Street has a history of frustrating libraries and educators with its sometimes tepid literary production, but there was at least one notable exception to this.  And it involved a furry blue monster.

The description of the plot from the publisher reads, “Generations of kids have interacted with lovable, furry old Grover as he begs the reader not to turn the page . . . for a monster is at the end of the book! ‘Oh, I am so embarrassed,’ he says on the last page, for of course the monster is Grover himself!”

Robin mentioned not knowing who the author of this book was, and I’m sure she’s not alone.  For those of us who count ourselves as Sesame Street groupies, though, Mr. Stone was one of the big time heavyweights behind the show itself.  He wrote and produced the television program after doing some work on Captain Kangaroo.  Joan Ganz Cooney called him “probably the most brilliant writer of children’s television material in America.”  For a lot more information on Stone you can refer to Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis which covers a lot of this ground.

Really, it’s illustrator Mike Smollin who piques my interest.  I mean, talk about a forgotten fellow.  Looking at his roster on Amazon you can see that he did a fair number of Sesame Street titles (The Great Cookie Thief, anyone?) as well as other series like Strawberry Shortcake, LEGO, books by Seaworld about Shamu, etc.  Fortunately the man has a website and there we learn that he was an advertiser turned illustrator.  “Over the years, Michael’s imaginative endeavors have been recognized with awards from the Emmys, The Society of Illustrators, The Detroit Bravo Awards and The Hollywood Reporter.”  He passed away in 2010 and looking at his career there is little doubt that this book remains

Keep reading if you’re looking for a real nail-biting kind of page-turner… Read more after the jump. Based on the television series Sesame Street, The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover is written by Jon Stone and illustrated by Michael Smollin. Grover is horrified to learn that there is a [...]