Alma and the Beast

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Hardcover
$17.99 US
On sale Sep 03, 2019 | 44 Pages | 9780735263963

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Alma's beautiful, hairy world is turned upside down by the arrival of a stranger. From the utterly original imagination of the author-illustrator of Ooko comes a story about celebrating differences and making new friends. For fans of Where the Wild Things Are and Wild.

Alma lives happily in her hairy world, where she can braid the trees, comb the grass, pet the roof and feed her plumpooshkie butterfly. Until one day . . . a hairless, button-nosed beast appears in the garden! At first Alma is scared but when she realizes the beast is lost and misses her hairless home, Alma offers to help her find her way back. As the two take a fantastical journey through the red-headed woods and the bearded mushroom glen to the beast's bald abode, they discover that they are much more alike than different.

This quirky and charming story about friendship, empathy and perspective invites readers into a surreal, fantastical world that evokes Alice in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are and The Lorax.
  • NOMINEE
    Doug Wright Award for Best Book
  • HONOR | 2019
    Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design – Children
ESMÉ SHAPIRO grew up in Laurel Canyon, California and Ontario, Canada, and is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Her picture books include Ooko, which was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award in 2016, Alma and the Beast, Carol and the Pickle-Toad, My Self, Your Self, which has received two starred reviews and Roy is Not a Dog which she co-wrote with her husband, Daniel Newell Kaufman. Esmé also illustrated Yak and Dove by Kyo Maclear, Eliza: The Story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton by Margaret McNamara and A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti. She has exhibited at the Society of Illustrators, and her work has been featured in Taproot and Plansponsor magazines. Esmé lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband, and their two dogs. View titles by Esmé Shapiro

About

Alma's beautiful, hairy world is turned upside down by the arrival of a stranger. From the utterly original imagination of the author-illustrator of Ooko comes a story about celebrating differences and making new friends. For fans of Where the Wild Things Are and Wild.

Alma lives happily in her hairy world, where she can braid the trees, comb the grass, pet the roof and feed her plumpooshkie butterfly. Until one day . . . a hairless, button-nosed beast appears in the garden! At first Alma is scared but when she realizes the beast is lost and misses her hairless home, Alma offers to help her find her way back. As the two take a fantastical journey through the red-headed woods and the bearded mushroom glen to the beast's bald abode, they discover that they are much more alike than different.

This quirky and charming story about friendship, empathy and perspective invites readers into a surreal, fantastical world that evokes Alice in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are and The Lorax.

Awards

  • NOMINEE
    Doug Wright Award for Best Book
  • HONOR | 2019
    Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design – Children

Author

ESMÉ SHAPIRO grew up in Laurel Canyon, California and Ontario, Canada, and is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Her picture books include Ooko, which was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award in 2016, Alma and the Beast, Carol and the Pickle-Toad, My Self, Your Self, which has received two starred reviews and Roy is Not a Dog which she co-wrote with her husband, Daniel Newell Kaufman. Esmé also illustrated Yak and Dove by Kyo Maclear, Eliza: The Story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton by Margaret McNamara and A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti. She has exhibited at the Society of Illustrators, and her work has been featured in Taproot and Plansponsor magazines. Esmé lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband, and their two dogs. View titles by Esmé Shapiro