When we first meet the Wanting Monster in this book's opening pages, he appears bored and downcast. We learn that everyone, even ants, ignore him, and "What monster can withstand such humiliation?"
The nearby village hums with activity, friendliness, and well-being. As the monster's howls go unheard, he devises a new plan, planting "a note of misery" in a villager's ear — a feeling of something missing, of wanting more, even though the man doesn't know what.
What's uncanny in the author's perception is that the man doesn't need anything, but once this seed of greed grips him, he actually seeks out things that "should" come to him ... like the stream outside his door. He digs a canal to fill a pool where he can cool himself.
Pretty soon his neighbors want pools like his. With a little help from the Wanting Monster, the villagers not only dangerously divert the stream — impeding their water supply — but also pick all the wildflowers and cut down all the trees to meet their desires. Their beautiful village turns into a wasteland.
But wait ... does any of this sound familiar? This extended metaphor speaks to the heart of what ails much of the Earth these days, as people take it for granted that they deserve anything they can dream of wanting.
The book takes a surprising turn when a young girl realizes that the way to handle the Wanting Monster — once the community recognizes that he's at the heart of their troubles — is not to kill him, but rather to treat him with such exquisite tenderness that he weeps with the unfamiliar feeling of being cared for. His tears refill the stream, and so the demolition begins to reverse.
Martine Murray is the Australian author and illustrator of many critically acclaimed books, translated into more than 20 languages. She's interested "in the unconscious processes that make us who we are." Anna Read, also from Australia, brings to this book's illustrations astute awareness of emotions in people's body language and an understanding of how perspective can shift the value we attribute to things.
Six-to-nine-year-old readers of this book will get a rare opportunity to see how to address greed at its root. If they can draw parallels to poverty and the climate crisis, all the better, for they will know that their own intentions and actions truly make a difference.
