Now Entering Cutesville: Love Monster by Rachel Bright

THIS IS MONSTER.

I THINK YOU WILL AGREE HE'S A BIT FUNNY-LOOKING, TO SAY THE LEAST.

It's not hard to see why this hairy little red monster is feeling blue. Somehow he's wandered into a place where he is obviously the odd one out. The sign at the edge of town tells it all.

WELCOME TO CUTESVILLE
***Home of the Fluffy***

Although the lavender heart on his sleeve proclaims that Monster's lookin' for love, this town looks like all the wrong places. Everything is pink or violet, and everyone is fluffy!  Monster is red and... yuk! HAIRY! With his bulgy eyes and visible fangs, Monster realizes that this town's idea of cute is just not in the cards for him

Still he doesn't give up his search to find someone like him to love him.

HE LOOKED HIGH... AND  LOW.  HE LOOKED MIDDLE-ISH.

For a moment he thinks he's spotted a soul mate--someone similarly hirsute, but it turns out to be his own reflection.  Then it begins to rain, looking dark and scary. Monster's search is clearly NOT going well!

But in Rachel Bright's brand-new Love Monster (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2013), there is at least one other hairy monster in the BIG WIDE WORLD, and Monster finds out that there are sweet surprises out there when "love finds you."  Bright's little Monster may not be fluffy, but in illustrator Bright's distinctive artwork, he is quite cute enough for Cutesville.   This is a heartfelt story of finding your place in the world with a theme that kids will get right away.  Publishers Weekly says, "Bright has a brisk but sympathetic voice that’s appealingly British, and her visual pacing is impeccable."