Monsters Under the Bed

Monsters Under the Bed: Don’t Bother to Look for the Logic
by Holly Jahangiri, author of Trockle

It’s pointless to argue with a child who believes there are monsters under the bed. Parents who try to apply rational logic to an irrational fear are setting themselves up for frustration and sleepless nights.

Imagination and fear make powerful allies. It’s dark at night. Suddenly, the child is deprived of sight – a whole sense gone in the flick of a light switch. And mom or dad insists that darkness is a good thing – you need darkness to sleep. (In fact, we all know that it’s just because Dad doesn’t really own stock in the electric company, and we don’t need light to see when our eyes are closed. Already, the parents’ credibility is going down the drain with the sewer monsters.) The house creaks. Grandpa snores. The water heater gurgles. The faucet drips. The refrigerator downstairs crackles and growls as it goes into the defrost cycle. A branch taps against the glass on the other side of the curtains. Children are smart, but their imaginations know no bounds; it’s just unthinkable to them that the adults they trust can’t see the monsters that lurk beneath the bed, in the closet, down in the basement, or up in the attic. Don’t they know that the darkness draws them out of their cool, dark hidey holes? Surely they’re not in league with the monsters…
Apply all the logic you like; it’s just not going to convince anyone under the age of ten. I suspect it won’t convince anyone over the age of ten, either, but middle schoolers are too cool to admit to having irrational fears or believing in monsters. Authors like R.L. Stine and Stephen King know better. We never outgrow our monsters – not really. Mine masquerade as spiders and hypodermic needles.

But we can make peace with them.

We can try to be equally irrational and spray the room with Monster Repellent (Febreeze makes a good one with a nice fresh scent that also helps to eliminate funky tennis shoe odor) or we can go with the flow and offer up the monster’s side of the story.

That’s what I did with Trockle. Of course, my sole intent, at the time, was to see to it that a sleepless night with the ceiling light on was at least not wasted time. William could practice reading. I started out writing the story of a little boy named Stephen who didn’t want to go to bed because he was afraid of monsters. Suddenly the little monster under the bed piped up and insisted I tell his story, too! He told me that his name was Trockle. He liked Choco-Tacos. (My son and I were standing in Ace Hardware one day after Trockle was published, and he was looking for an ice cream treat in their freezer. “Mom, they have Choco-Tacos!” Imagine my surprise – I didn’t know there was such a thing! William and I had to try them, of course. Thanks, Trockle – they’re pretty tasty!) Trockle showed me what it was like for him, under the bed. He didn’t want to go to sleep, either. I smiled as I watched his mother tuck him in. She gently reassured Trockle that Stephen – the great big, scary boy over the bed – wasn’t so terribly different from him. Once you got past the rather startling differences in their appearances, they had more in common than they realized. Trockle thought it was just hilarious that Stephen was afraid of him.
See? Grown-ups aren’t stupid. We know all about the little monsters under – and over – the bed. And we love them, icky sticky hands and all.


Don't forget - leave comments or questions (and don't forget the email addy) for Ms. Holly or Ms. Jordan and your name will go in a drawing to win a Trockle tote bag.

Trockle is available at 4RV's site, amazon.com, and bookstores everywhere.

Next stop is Ms. Aidana's Cover Chat blog tomorrow. Hope to see you all in the postings and following the tour. - Ms. E :)