The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover

"The Monster at the End of This Book" redirects here. For the Supernatural episode, see The Monster at the End of This Book (Supernatural).

The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover

The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover is a post-modern children's book based on the television series Sesame Street and starring Grover. It was written by Jon Stone and illustrated by Michael Smollin, and originally published by Golden Books in 1971 (ISBN 0-307-01085-6). It is the best selling Sesame Street title and Sesame Workshop also released this as an audio enabled free eBook with highlights on December 7, 2009.^[1] It is designed to teach children the technique of reading a book from beginning to end.

Plot

In this book, Grover is horrified to learn that there is a monster at the end of the book, and begs the reader not to finish the book, so as to avoid the monster.

Fearful of reaching the end of the book, Grover constructs a series of obstacles, such as attempting to tie pages together and laying brick walls, to prevent the reader from advancing.

Increasingly frightened (and also in awe of the reader's strength at overcoming the obstacles), Grover pleads with the reader to stop reading as the book nears its conclusion.

However, the monster turns out to be Grover himself, making the story self-referential. Grover jokes that he tried to convince the reader that the monster would not be scary – but we see at the end that he is embarrassed.

Sequel

A sequel, Another Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover, and Equally Lovable, Furry Little Elmo (ISBN 0-375-80562-1), was published in 1996. It was also written by Stone and illustrated by Smollin, and features Grover and the ubiquitous Elmo.

In other media

A reference to the books is made in the March 2, 2004 installment of Dinosaur Comics.^[2] A reference to the books is made in the January 18, 2011 installment of Sheldon (webcomic).^[3]

The TV series Supernatural had an episode with the same name.

References

1. ^ Trachtenberg, Jeffrey (December 7, 2009). "Sesame Workshop Plans Children's E-Books". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735004574576223643509900.html. 
2. ^ http://www.qwantz.com/archive/000265.html
3. ^ http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/110118.html

External links

• The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover on Muppet Wiki, an external wiki
• Free eBook: The Monster at the End of This Book