illustrated by Rae Minos
“It’s a busy afternoon in Uglymug’s Salon,
the queue is stretching out the door … and on … and on … and ON!
Witches, monsters, ghosts and ghouls have come from far and wide,
to have their hair made horrid and their faces uglified.”
It’s HALLOWEEN – and there’s a long queue at the Ugly Salon.
Uglymug is busy giving his customers monstrous makeovers. With a smear of mouldy make-up and some handfuls of snot and slime, can he make them look their very WORST?
“Bound to be a hit with younger children. The quirky details in every picture are a joy for children to seek out and spot. … This is great fun and highly recommended.”
PICTURE BOOK OF THE MONTH – MARCH 2022
Tom Tolkien, SCHOOL READING LIST
Download Monster Makeovers
CRISS-CROSS &
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
activity sheets
Although one reviewer described my picture book The Santa Trap as “An ideal Christmas present for children who prefer Halloween”, Monster Makeovers is the first proper Halloween picture book I’ve written.
Halloween is usually defined as the “the night of 31 October”, but I decided to set my story 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. Taking inspiration from Raymond Briggs’ Fungus the Bogeyman, I decided that, instead of wanting to ‘look their best’, the monsters in my story would want to ‘look their worst’. And, instead of visiting a beauty salon, they might visit an ‘ugly salon’ where an expert, like Uglymug, would help them to look as frightening as possible.
The bathroom routine and toiletries of Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs was an inspiration for the story and some of the “ugly products’ the salon uses.
Once I’d settled on the idea of an ugly salon, I had fun turning various beauty treatments on their heads and matching different ‘ugly treatments’ to different monsters. What sort of a manicure would you give an ogre? Who would want their hair dirtied rather than cleaned? How would Uglymug make a vampire look scarier?
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.
“When a book-loving family run their floating library aground on a remote island, they soon realise they are not alone. There are pirates! With diverse characters with wonderful expressions and engaging and vivid illustrations, this is bound to be a hit with younger children. The quirky details in every picture are a joy for children to seek out and spot. There are clever book author names, a pirate who sucks his thumb and a shark with a sparkling overbite. This is great fun and highly recommended.”
PICTURE BOOK OF THE MONTH – MARCH 2022
Tom Tolkien, SCHOOL READING LIST