Help me remember the name of this kid's book please!

December 11, 2019 6:55 PM

Hello Mefi, I'm looking for a book that I remember being quite fond of as a small child. I'm hoping you can help where my Google-Fu failed.

Here's what I remember:

It's a shortish picture book.

The whole thing takes place on a small island. There's a wall in the middle with a hole in it.

Two monsters live on the island, one on either side of the hole. They're friends, and they speak to each other through the hole.

One day, they get mad at each other. They throw rocks and shout insults at each other.

One of the insults is "Nincompoop!", which was the /height/ of humor to my 5 year old self.

They throw so many rocks that they entirely knock down the wall.

They decide to not be mad at each other any more, and now they're friends together on the island.

Given my age, the book is around 35 years old.

Any leads?

posted by Zudz to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Can't help now but we read this book to my kids in French. I will see if they or my wife can remember more later today. My kids loved the insults too, though the French translation, not "nincompoop"!
posted by anzen-dai-ichi at 12:09 AM on December 12, 2019

Is it Two Monsters by David McKee?
posted by biggreenplant at 6:20 AM on December 12, 2019

Two Monsters appears to be it! I was briefly thrown by the art being different than I remembered, but now that I have the title I was able to Google up that there was indeed different art in an older edition.

Thanks, biggreenplant! You're a mensch!
posted by Zudz at 7:21 AM on December 12, 2019