1. By: Stacy Bell

2. Stanley is a brave little boy who is hardly afraid of anything. But there is one thing that he IS scared of: monsters.

3. What was that? One day, Stanley’s best friend John came over to spend the night. While they were sleeping, something woke them up. What was that?

4. There were strange noises coming from Stanley’s closet.

5. “A monster!” whispered John. “A big, scary, CLOSET monster!” shouted Stanley. But neither of the two boys were brave enough to go close the door to the closet. So they tried to go back to sleep.

6. The next morning, when Stanley and John were getting ready to go play outside, Stanley couldn’t find one of his shoes. Where is it?

7. He ran to his dad and said, “The monster in my closet ate my shoe!” It’s HUGE!

8. “Stanley, there are no monsters in your closet,” said his dad, and he went into Stanley’s room and opened his closet to prove to John and Stanley that there really weren’t any monsters in Stanley’s closet. See! No monsters!

9. “But dad! We heard him last night!” argued Stanley, “and he ate my shoe too.”

10. “No, Stanley. I am sure you just misplaced your shoe and we will look for it some other time,” reassured his dad. So the two boys went outside to play.

11. Later that day, John and Stanley decided to play a game in Stanley’s room. While they were playing, they heard the noises again.

12. Once and for all, John and Stanley decided to stand up for themselves and fight the monster. They got their plastic swords and armor, and with war paint on their faces, they entered the closet together.

13. At first they didn’t see anything and so they thought that maybe Stanley’s dad was right, and there really wasn’t a monster in his closet. Maybe he was right.

14. Then, the noise was there again, and this time they knew where it was coming from. Crouched in the corner behind Stanley’s clothes was the monster. But it wasn’t a big, ferocious, hungry monster; it was little and shaking like a leaf from fear.

15. “It’s a baby monster,” explained John. “Come on out little fella’,” encouraged Stanley, “we won’t hurt you.” The little monster looked at them and eased his way into the light. Although he wasn’t the prettiest monster, he seemed friendly. In fact, he was more scared than Stanley and John were.

16. “What’s your name?” asked Stanley. What’s your name?

17. “O-O-Oliver,” managed the little monster. The monster handed Stanley back his shoe and said, “I am sorry for taking your shoe. I didn’t want to eat it, only to look at it.” I’m sorry.

18. “It’s okay!” forgave Stanley. “But Oliver, how did you get in my closet?” he wondered.

19. “Well, one night you left your window open and it was cold outside. I needed somewhere to hide, so I crawled in through the window and slept in your closet.

20. I got really comfortable and found some really cool toys, and so I just decided to stay,” explained Oliver.

21. Goodnight Stanley! Goodnight! From that day on, neither Stanley nor John were afraid of closet monsters, and they each also made a new friend, and every night they would say, “Goodnight!” to their new friend.