Huggly Takes a Bath by Tedd Arnold

This is a fun book that takes readers on the bath time adventure of a monster named Huggly. Huggly lives under the bed of a "people child" and one night he decides to explore the house. He quickly finds the bathroom, and not knowing what it is decides to look around for some snacks. Huggly eats the soap and toothpaste, scrubs between his toes with toothbrushes, and uses the side of the tub as a slide. Once he gets into the tub he fills it with water and starts to add all sorts of "slime" (bubble bath, shampoo, etc.) to the water. Soon the tub is filled with bubbles and Huggly exclaims that this is the "Best slime pit ever!" He covers himself with bubbles to become a snow monster, a dragon, and a ghost. But just as Huggly is having so much fun the "people child" comes into the bathroom and Huggly races back to the bedroom where he once again hides under the bed. The children I've used this book with seem to love all of Huggly's silly actions and laugh riotously when he eats the soap and toothpaste. They especially seem to enjoy it when Huggly uses the family's toothbrushes to scrub between his toes. The end of the story is a little lame, but the rest of the book is great and promotes lots of pretend play. Where to Buy: Huggly Takes a Bath was published about 12 years ago so it can be a little bit hard to find in some of the larger children's bookstores, but it's still available on-line and would probably turn up in lots of used book stores.