Praise for The Wanting Monster

A Marginalian Favorite Book of 2025! "An almost unbearably wonderful modern fable about who we would be and what this world would be like if we finally arrived, exhausted and relieved, at the still point of enough. Having always felt that great children's books are works of philosophy in disguise, speaking great truth in the language of tenderness, I hold this one among my all-time favorites."
The Marginalian

“A picture book written by Martine Murray and beautifully illustrated by Anna Read, The Wanting Monster tells the story of a town... where the titular character sets off a mad race among the townspeople to hoard every natural resource for themselves... The Wanting Monster looks like Maurice Sendak’s Max if he had stayed in the land of the Wild Things and grown into one himself. And as with Max, the key to taming him is showing him a bit of love... From the first page, a palette of pale greens and blues is threatened by dark clouds hovering over the horizon. As the Wanting Monster pours its greed into the ears of the villagers, the darkness pours over the hills and envelops the village, the pages becoming gorgeous studies in blacks and whites and deep blues.”
The New York Times

Very poetic and deep... The ideas afoot in this book are great.
A Fuse #8 Production (A School Library Journal blog)

This fable teases out the difference between wants and needs and illustrates how excessive desire can lead to heartache. Read’s folkloric art has an ominous quality to it, with skies filled with gray, purple, and black swirls evoking the current climate disaster... An atmospheric musing on the perils of avarice.
Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Martine Murray is an acclaimed Australian author and illustrator whose work has been translated into more than 20 different languages. Her first novel, The Slightly True Story of Cedar B Hartley, was selected for the White Ravens list of outstanding international children’s books and was one of the New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing and a Book Sense 76 Children’s Pick. Anna Luisa Read is an Australian artist whose work spans painting, ceramics, music, theater, and garden design. Always deeply committed to and informed by her connection to the natural world, Anna was a co-founder of Studio Su in Castlemaine, a ceramic gallery space. She is also the co-founder of Parachute Press, a small independent publisher. Anna resides in Campbells Creek, a little town on the edge of Castlemaine in central Victoria.

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