PreS-Gr 2 Mayer's third book about nightmares features a feisty girl in blonde pigtails, nightgown, cowboy hat, and boots. When Mom and Dad don't believe that there's a nightmare in the attic, she decides to lasso it and bring it downstairs to show them. The fat friendly dragon-like monster appears with the girl's teddy bear and won't give it back. She pulls it down with the lasso to her parent's room, but it slips away, and she vows to retrieve her bear tomorrow. The predominately blue watercolors with black pen are not as refined as those in Mayer's There's a Nightmare in My Closet (Dial, 1968). The outline and cross-hatching are thicker and resemble the illustrations in Mayer's There's an Alligator Under My Bed (Dial, 1987). The format remains large with creative use of white space and frames. The nightmare is a cream puff of a creature with child-like facial expressions. The story is satisfying, humorous, possibly bibliotherapeutic, and significantly different from previous titles to justify making room on the shelf for this nightmare as well. Jean Gaffney, Dayton and Montgomery County Pub . Lib . , Ohio (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Mercer Mayer was born December 30, 1943 in Little Rock Arkansas. While attending school at the Honolulu Museum of Art, Mayer decided to enter the field of children's book illustration. He created a portfolio of sketches and peddled them wherever he could. He moved to New York City in 1964, pursuing further instruction at the Art Students League of New York, where he met an artist named Marianna who became his first wife. He soon created a new portofolio and with these new sketches persuaded editors at Dial Press and Harper & Row to give him some illustration work. Mayer published his first book, A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog, at Dial Press in 1967. It was notable for being a completely wordless picture book one that tells its story entirely through the use of pictures. Mayer was one of the first illustrators to be credited for using this format. Five more books in this series were to follow. Mayer joined Golden Publishing, creators of Little Golden Books, in 1976. Through them he has sold his "Little Critter" and "Little Monster" series, which are popular with beginning readers. His title Just Me and My Dad made The New York Times Best Seller List for 2012. In 2015, his title Little Critter: Just a Little Love, also made the list.