Mail-Order Monsters: Crash Course
Silvia Acevedo
Three Points Publishing (2025)
ISBN: 978-1950150014
Reviewed by Dawn Colclasure for Reader Views(10/2025)
After having a fallout with his best friend, Tinker, Marco feels lonely and depressed. These feelings prompt him to take advantage of an ad he finds in a comic book where he can order his own monsters. Part of him isn’t sure if it’s the real thing and if he’ll actually receive monsters in the mail, and another part of him is eagerly hoping that the monsters are real, and that they’ll be his new best friends. When his monsters arrive in the mail, strange instructions tell him how to turn them into real creatures. And after that happens, Marco’s life is majorly transformed into new routines of caring for his monsters, as well as learning how to live with them in a society that doesn’t accept monsters to be something that not only can play, but also talk and do neat tricks! “Monsters aren’t real,” people say. But Marco is here to prove them all wrong in Mail-Order Monsters: Crash Course by Silvia Acevedo.
The monsters in this story are not your average scary creatures. In fact, they are friendly and actually feel fear over scary things like the possibility of snakes being nearby or someone acting very scary. They also offer hugs, of all things. Have you ever hugged a monster? Marco and his friend, Maite, get to experience this affection with the monsters, and soon Marco realizes just how special his new monster friends are.
One exciting aspect about this book is that it is a great way for readers to learn some Spanish words and phrases. Marco is a Latino character, so his family speaks Spanish at home. But many of Marco’s friends and some teachers are also Latino, so Spanish words and phrases are sprinkled throughout the book. The thoughts as well as internal dialogue from Marco responding to and explaining the Spanish phrases are helpful to understand what was said.
While Marco had ordered these monsters because he was feeling like he needed some new friends to replace the one he lost, he had also hoped that his new friends might make his former friend jealous. But when the other kids at his school inquire about where to get their own monsters, he starts to feel guarded about the whole “monster ownership” idea.
Last week, he wanted monsters to make Tinker jealous, to make Tink see how cool he was with new friends, and if Tink had all the answers to their mysteries, well, he wouldn’t be quite as impressed. The other reason Marco wouldn’t say where he got the monsters was because he knew they weren’t asking out of simple curiosity. They wanted their own. So, while it wasn’t entirely true to say “1 can’t say,” it was true that he couldn’t say at that moment because saying so would lose them part of their magical appeal. (Page 145)
But Marco also realizes that his new monster friends also serve another need for him:
With Tinker being super hostile and Knox bullying him, he needed friends, someone he could talk to and play with so he wouldn’t feel quite so alone. (Page 145)
These new friends, however, certainly keep Marco busy. He learns responsibility when he takes his monsters to school, and the monsters create a lot of chaos. Marco realizes that, unlike human friends, these monster friends do things the monster way. Not only this, but they are often hungry, much hungrier than most people. This creates several misadventures in the school, pitting the monsters against the teachers, the janitor and even the principal as they do things such as steal lunches, free animals, and wreak havoc in classrooms.
Through this friendship with his monsters, Marco also learns important lessons about himself and about friendship. He learns healthy ways to deal with his bullying problem. These lessons help him to understand his interactions with his human friends better, and maybe how he should be a little more understanding about the differences they have.
When his ex-best friend proposes a challenge to see who has the better “new best friends,” Marco takes it on. This part of the book is very interesting and fun to read. It also allowed this reader the opportunity to see Marco’s monsters shine in a brand-new light, as they show creative and dedicated aspects of themselves that they would not ordinarily be showing. This part of the story was very entertaining to read, and I’m sure the young readers who this book is written for will enjoy this part of the story, too. It was exciting to read about the big day. How action-packed and full of surprises this part of the story was! The author did an excellent job in writing it, as I was on the edge of my seat the whole time while reading it!
Mail-Order Monsters: Crash Course by Silvia Acevedo is a unique and entertaining story for kids as well as adults who are young at heart. These monsters are very real, but they’re not the kind that hide in your closet waiting to scare you. They’re the kind that wants to play with you, share fun activities with you, but most of all, be your friend.