Marty Muskrat is a scaredy-rat. He's scared riding bikes, he's scared climbing trees and he's scared swinging on ropes. When Marty's class goes to Funland Park, his friends help him discover there are only Three Kinds of Scared - and he can conquer every one! Full of gentle humour and warmth, the original version of this story was written by the late F. N. Monjo, the acclaimed American author of over twenty books for children. His son, Justin, who revised and refined the text, feels a special bond with this story which is in part about a young boy trying to win his father's approval. The illustrations by Peter Viska in delicious retro colours have been created using a combination of black ink and electronic animation techniques.

 

This book was recognised by the Australian Family Therapists Award for Children's Literature.

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 2003 by Allen & Unwin .

Peter Viska began his career as a cartoonist in 1969, when he created children's pages for magazines such as The Daily Mirror . During the 1970s, Peter undertook a number of political and freelance cartoonist roles before turning to book illustration in the 1980s, when he illustrated the Far Out series. In 1980 Peter established Mickey Duck Animation Co, specialising in character animation. In 1992, Peter incorporated Viskatoons to broaden and develop the television series and animation feature films operation arm of the company. He lives in Melbourne. F. N. Monjo was a prolific author of over 20 children's books. He wrote a first draft of this book just before his death in 1980. His son Justin has re-worked it. Justin Monjo is the co-author of the award-winning play Cloudstreet which played at the National Theatre, London in 2001