I bought and read this book, because I used to live in Connecticut, and it was a "Nutmeg Award" Nominee which is the top children's book in the state as voted by students. I read it and thought it was enjoyable, but nowhere near as fun or interesting or even well-written as his My Teacher.. series. I guess I was expecting a lot, and this book had a lot in it, space travel, monsters, hot monsters, a pet monkey, going to the land of the dead, alien invasions, seperaiton of spirits. You would think it was amazing, but you only get half of the story, the aprt from Anthony's point of view, and from no one else in the story. The book could have been finish in less than 150 pages but lasts until 221 with the epilogue, and then it seems like it stops. It should have been two books, the Epilogue should be longer and tell what has happened in better detail, and the middle of the book should be anywhere else. I liked it, but can not see how it won the Nutmeg, or any award.

This "Madcap Adventure" is a real adventure.
2 Kids find a box with wooden monsters in it and one of the monsters get water splashed on them. That's where the adventure starts! JUST ADD WATER!

It was soooo good!
First of all, the places they go to were described so well, I imagined I was actually there. The cast seemed so real, I wanted to meet them. I recomeend this book to EVERYONE!

This book is about brother and sister trying to save earth from aliens with 5 strange people. At the starting of the book the brother bought the locked box in the Morley Manor. Everything in the Morley Manor were sale because the owner of the Morley Manor the Old Man Morley has died. The neighbors weren't very close to him so they didn't know if he had any relatives. So the Morley Manor was bought from demolition team. When he got back home, he opened the locked box and found 5 dolls inside. Later on by an accident he dropped water to one of the monsters hand which started to move.
What I think of this book is that the author Bruce Coville has very different thinking then others. The world he creates in the book was very fascinating such as, going one planet to another, land of dead, and going into another people's dead body. But one of the things that I was very impressed was few people going into a frog's mouse and talk to it. Talking to an animal is normal for most of science fiction book but going into the animal's mouth is very different from other books.
This book gives us 2 lessons. One is that families and friends are important in your life. Another I wish you read it by your own. It's in the Epilogue p.220~221. They were very impressive for me. I wish they will be very impressive for you.
I wish you read the Monster of Morley Manor.

Bruce Coville uses wonderful adjectives to describe his characters in this fun and suspense filled book.