MONSTER MAKEOVERS • New UK & US Picture Book
I have a new picture book out in the UK and US!
Monster Makeovers is a Halloween-themed rhyming story, illustrated by Rae Minos and published by Boxer Books. Both the UK and US editions were published in July, but I thought I’d wait until Halloween was closer before sharing it on this blog.
Halloween is usually defined as the “the night of 31 October”, but I decided to set the book in the afternoon before. How would witches, monsters, ghosts and ghouls prepare for their big night out? I wondered. When ordinary people get together for a big night out, many will try to look their best by having their hair cut or styled, putting on make-up or manicuring their nails. Some might even visit a beauty salon to get a glamorous makeover. But monsters aren’t ordinary people. So, I decided that, instead of wanting to ‘look their best’, monsters would want to ‘look their worst’. And instead of visiting a beauty salon, they would visit an ‘ugly salon’ where a stylist called Uglymug would help them to look as frightening as possible.
The story was accepted by Boxer Books who asked Canadian animator-illustrator Rae Minos to illustrate it as her debut picture book. Rae’s Mid-Century Modern inspired style is a great fit with the text and conveys the disgusting details of Uglymug’s makeovers in a very appealing and comical way. And, as someone who grew up in the 1970s watching classic monster movies from the fifties and sixties, I was delighted to see old favourites such as the Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Blob appearing as extras in some of her illustrations.
For the endpaper at the front of the book (shown below), Rae drew portraits of some of the salon’s customers before their makeovers. You can see how the same customers look after Uglymug and his assistants have finished ‘uglifying’ them by moving your mouse over or clicking on the image to reveal the endpaper from the back of the book.
Move your mouse over or tap the portraits below to see how the monsters look after Uglymug has given them a makeover.
Here’s a trailer for the book:
You can download activity sheets for the book by clicking on the images below.
And you can order the book from your local bookshop or online using the sales links below.
