Frank N Stan

Frankenstein Picture Books, and the marketing of monsters to young readers

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Amazon.com: Frank'n'Stan (9781847801609): Robertson, M. P.: Books

Due to the shortness of picture book versions of Frankenstein, and because of the insights that emerge about how Shelley’s story was marketed to young readers when we take up this category as a whole, the database deals with Frankenstein Picture Books in the way we handle editions: all at once in one “monster” entry. As a category of books, we list all the connected texts but “bold” the relevant edition you have looked up below. We avoid poetry in the database, but never does that avoidance seem a more artificial distinction than here…we have left out, to name a prominent example, Adam Rex’s Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich (2006).

The idea of writing “Frankenstein” picture books is a recent phenomenon. We might wonder who attended the Gothic theater adaptations of Frankenstein in the Victorian era, especially one marketed as a “Christmas Extravaganza” like Frankenstein; or, The Modal Man from 1849? And who is Whale’s 1931 landmark movie aimed at, really? The clarity of putting all the Universal “monster movies” as something meant “for” young viewers is at least partly a phenomenon of their being sold to television in the 1950s, an historical moment that placed movies released for everyone more exclusively before young viewers. Modern youth culture took up Frankenstein readily.

The comics proceeded picture books in bringing the “Frankenstein story” to kids, first with Briefer’s comic adaptation in 1940, in the series beginning in Prize #7, “The New Adventures of Frankenstein,” and even more with his humorous, 1947 post-war return to a stand-alone comic version of The Creature. Ruth Roche’s 1945 Classic Comic’s Illustrated Frankenstein adapts the story for young readers. The Marvel comics’ The Monster of Frankenstein in 1973 also aims at young readers. Bernie Wrightson’s lavish illustration adaptation in 1983 is pulling towards the gentrification of “comics” into “graphic novels,” with the “Frankenstein story” offering a vehicle that is sensational for popular readers, and yet offers the potential for horror and violence, on the one hand, and underlying philosophical and existential musings, on the other, that brings the “monster story” suddenly into adult literary concerns.

Picture books are more expensive than comic books, and are aimed at the youngest of readers, and have been, therefore, more resistant to allowing scary monsters in (despite the old fairy tales!) than the “low brow” comics. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are from 1963 is one key text that brings monsters—taken seriously, not humorously—into picture books. Initial criticism of Sendak’s work included adult critics who wondered if the story was too frightening for children; audiences (children and, of course, their parents, who buy the books) made it a success on release and a picture book classic now.

Wonder Books released a large-format paperback, Monsters, that featured “Frankenstein and the Monster,” in 1965. A Golden Press edition of Frankenstein for middle school or High School readers would follow in 1968. Random House’s easy reader Frankenstein appeared in 1982 (Hitchcock, 275-276). Looking for signs of the Creature as marketed to children in pop culture, Susan Tyler Hitchcock points back to Tim Burton’s short movie “Frankenweenie” (1984) as a place to see how “children’s products” could be marketed that simply “hint back at their monstrous predecessor” (309) with the expectation that viewers would know what was going on. Hitchcock points to Frankenstein Doesn’t Plant Petunias, a Bailey School Kids early reader series from Scholastic in 1993, as one of the earliest moments of that phenomenon in literature. She also mentions Jan Wahls’ Frankenstein’s Dog and Curtis Jobling’s Frankenstein’s Cat.

In general, in making our list, in which the number of titles grows exponentially as we move forward in time, we have allowed all the early works we can find but sought to pare the 21st-century works down to those that seem to have a relationship to the original by Shelley and its themes and don’t simply throw in a “Creature,” however recognizable.

FRANKENSTEIN PICTURE BOOKS:

  1. Monsters, Walter Gibson (Wonder, 1965). A short retelling of the original in the “Frankenstein and his Monster” section; the books also includes “Dracula the Vampire” and a section on Mr. Hyde. Themes: ALL THEMES; Characters: EDITION
  2. Frankenstein: The Immortal Story of a Monster Created by a Young Scientist Hoping to be a Benefactor (Golden Press, 1968), adapted by Dale Carlson. Significantly shortened version of Shelley’s text for younger readers. Themes: ALL THEMES; Characters: EDITION
  3. Frankenstein, adapted by Larry Weinberg (Random House, 1982). Illustrated by Ken Barr. Severely pared down and altered version, with “vocabulary matched to second- to fourth-grade readers” (276). Part of the “Stepping Stones” Chapter Book series. Themes: ALL THEMES; Characters: EDITION
  4. Dracula’s Cat and Frankenstein’s Dog, Jan Wahl (Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1990). Illustrated by Kay Chorao. Dracula’s Cat originally appeared in 1978. The additional story in 1990 introduces a friendly Creature called “Frankenstein” and his dog. Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; Characters: The Creature
  5. Frankenstein Doesn’t Plant Petunias, Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones (Scholastic, 1993). Frank is tall and has scars, and yet likes plants. Could he be the Creature? The 19th-book in the popular Bailey School Kids series. THEMES: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; ANDROID; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; Characters: Victor Frankenstein; The Creature
  6. Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance, Keith Graves (Chronicle Books, 1999). The Creature dances madly, dismembering himself in the process, but all in good fun. Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; ANDROID; Characters: The Creature
  7. Happy Birthday, Frankie, Sarah Weeks (HarperCollins, 1999), Illustrated by Warren Linn. A build-it-yourself kit that starts with a hapless creator trying and failing to figure out how to build his Creature in time for its birthday. When the Creature blows out its candle, it falls apart again. Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; ANDROID; Characters: The Creature
  8. Frankenstein’s Cat, Curtis Jobling (Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, 2001) The story of a cat created before “Frank,” a mad doctor, makes “a man out of body parts. Monster goes mad, lots of tears, end of story.” Pushing the adult original away to concentrate on the more acceptable alternative of a pet Creature. “Nine” is built of nine cats and only wants a friend; eventually, Frank makes a Creature dog for a happy ending. Made into a BBC television series. Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; ANDROID; Characters: Victor Frankenstein
  9. Franny K. Stein, Jim Benton (Simon and Schuster, 2003). A series of seven chapter books, starting with “Lunch Walks Among Us,” about a Gothic mad scientist girl and her inventions and experiments. Themes: WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; ANDROID; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; Characters: No Character
  10. Dracula and Frankenstein Are Friends, Katherine Tegen (HarperCollins, 2003). Dracula and Frankenstein have competing Halloween parties that put the friends in competition. Eventually Dracula yields, in the interest of harmony, to join his party with that of his gentle friend. Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; Characters: The CREATURE
  11. Frankie Stein, Lola M. Schaefer (Cavendish, 2007), Illustrated by Kevan Atteberry. Frankie is the child of Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Stein, who are modeled on the Whale Creature and bride, no happily together. They want Frankie to act like them, but Frankie wants to be affectionate…which turns out to be his way of being scary to monsters. Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; Character: The Creature; The Bride
  12. Do Not Build a Frankenstein! (Greenwillow, 2009). A boy haunted by a “Frankenstein” he built to be his friend warns the other children to not build their own monsters. Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; ANDROID; BYRONIC HERO; Characters: The Creature
  13. Maddie’s Monster Dad, Scott Gibala-Broxholm (Two Lions, 2011). Maddie and her Dad love monsters, but he’s been too busy so Maddie makes her own monster Dad. She discovers that monsters can’t do all the things real dads can do. Themes: ANDROID; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; Characters: No Character
  14. Frank N Stan, M.P. Robertson (Lincoln Children’s Books, 2012). Franklin P. Shelley wants a sibling, and when he doesn’t get one, builds a robot, Stan. When he gets a baby sister, Stan fells left out, but Franklin tracks him down and they all become a family together. Themes: ANDROID; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; RETRO SF; Characters: No Character
  15. Frankenstein’s Dog (Goosebumps Most Wanted #4), R.L. Stine (Scholastic Paperbacks, 2013). One of the decades-spanning Goosebumps series books that mass-sold horror to the youngest readers. Kat goes to visit her Uncle Vic Frankenstein (a descendant of the original), who is into A.I., and building robots. Kat discovers he is trying to steal her brainwaves, and that it is not her Uncle at all, and manages to thwart the evil plan afoot. The dog plays a small role. Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; BYRONIC HERO; ANDROID; Characters: No Character
  16. The Frankenstein Journals, Scott Sonneborn (Stone Arch Books, 2014), Illustrated by Timothy Banks. Set of five chapter books that tell of the story of a boy in an orphanage who discovers he is the child of the Creature, and sets out to find all the people whose body parts made up his father…but someone else is also on the trail and wants to make a new monster: Frances Kenstein, Victor’s daughter bent on recreating her father’s experiment! Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; ANDROID; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; BYRONIC HERO; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS; Characters: No Character
  17. Frankenstein: A Monstrous Parody, Rick Walton (Square Fish, 2016), Illustrated by Nathan Hale. As by Ludwurst Bemonster on cover. Funny, award-winning mash up with classic “Madeline” picture books. Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; Characters: The Creature
  18. A Valentine for Frankenstein, Leslie Kimmelman (Carolrhoda Books, 2018), Illustrated by Timothy Banks. “Frankenstein” is lonely at a monster’s Valentine’s Day Bash, because he is different from the other monsters, having two eyes, one head, and no tail. He can’t seem to win the disgusting monster contests. Finally, a secret Valentine left in his pocket and his search for who sent it makes the other monsters realize he is a monster, too… and an all-around nice guy. Themes: SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; Characters: The Creature

Works Cited

Frankenstein: A Cultural History, Susan Tyler Hitchcock (Norton, 2007).