'Once, in a cave, there lived a horrible ugly monster. Perhaps the most horrible and ugly monster in the whole world.' So ugly is the monster that lives in this cave that he can turn a blue sky to snow and evaporate a pond just by dipping his toe in it. No living thing can stand to be in his presence. But the monster is not ugly on the inside; he's just lonely; very, very lonely. So he decides to build some friends out of stone, but not even stone can stand the full force of the monster's smile, and all the stone animals shatter ...except for one: the little stone rabbit. The monster is thrilled with his new friend - even if the only game he's any good at is playing statues (at which he excels) - and for a time life is good. But even monsters cannot live forever ...

 

This book is part of a book series called Tom Maschler Books .

There are 32 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 2005 by Random House Children's Publishers UK .

Chris Wormell lives in North London with his wife and children. He was the winner of the Ragazza Prize at Bologna in 1991 and the Smarties Bronze Award in 2003. In addition to his children's books, Chris undertakes other illustration work including advertising campaigns, packaging and, issued in January 2005, a set of stamps featuring farmyard animals for the Royal Mall.