Simone and the night's monsters is a unique ebook app about a little boy who bravely battles a crazy assortment of 'monsters' that inhabit his room after dark. His mom checks on him because of all the noise, but every time she opens the door, the scary creatures disappear. Instead of believing Simone's stories, she says, "Simone, stop making such a racket! Go back to bed right now."

After a nearly sleepless night where Simone triumphs over a green blob monster, giant spider, vampire, skeletons and a witch, he wakes up to a very messy room and very unhappy mom. He trudges off to school, sleepily. Meanwhile his mother is shown in the last scene scolding the group of monsters and making them clean up the mess.

While this book is about nighttime, it might be a little scary for some young children as a bedtime story. It is a great little read otherwise, although not narrated. It has a small amount of animation in each scene that enhances the story, plus several sound effects. Simone's eyes flit back and forth, shadows move and there are lots of scary sounds to accompany the storyline.

The book is well made and has simple settings to read with or without the added animation. The illustrations, by Graziano Vitale, are hand-drawn and lots of fun. The developer is also very responsive, getting a new update out quickly when I first discovered some problems with the English translation. The fix was not only quick, but completely addressed my concerns.

The book is not interactive, but can be personalized. All the monsters and even Simone himself can be renamed so the story can be about your child and an assortment of their own named monsters. My son loved this feature and gave all the monsters especially silly names (which also made it seem less scary - a nice touch!).

All reviews are of the app, not the platform/device. Based originally on iPad versions. Minor technical details may vary.