This review will be short and sweet. “My Vampire vs Your Werewolf” by Paul Tobin is a middle grade chapter book about, no surprise here, vampires and werewolves. My grandson, an avid reader and lover of the horror genre, devoured this in one sitting. It’s a clever concept in which an organization called the Crafters Guild sends children out to find lonely monsters and get them in shape for fighting. Apparently monsters like to fight each other.

There are Crafters and Wardens. The Crafters know a bit of magic and the Wardens keep the monsters safely away from human contact. Mostly. In the book, it’s explained that, “….we Crafters and Wardens manage a vast, but secret, global network of people who bring together a wide range of monsters so that these creatures may battle one another.” It’s up to the children to obtain the magic medallions they need to control the monsters, and they need ingenuity and nerves of steel to do that.

As far as the fighting goes, we learn that monsters want to fight, and that it’s in their nature. “It’s how they socialize.” While two pairs of kids are obtaining each monster, the vampire and the werewolf in this novel, we also see there are mummies. We learn that there are times when some of the monsters are not in monstrous mode, when they’re kind and gentle. They are intelligent. But in the end, they are monsters.

There’s a fabulous twist after the vampire and werewolf have their grand fight, and the author does a wonderful job setting up the scene for the next novel, in which the action will be centered around ghost vs mummy. While these books might give some children nightmares, the contents are really pretty tame considering the subject matter. The children in the novels are pretty safe and excel at outwitting the monsters. It’s all good fun and this is a series that many will get hooked on. There’s also wonderful examples of cooperation and collaboration between the kids, and teachers will appreciate those themes.

Please note: This review is based on the final, paperback book provided by Bloomsbury Children’s Books, the publisher, for review purposes.