The Book Sniffer: Nibbles The Book Eating Monster

There have been some strange goings-on at Book Sniffer Towers of late...mysterious little snippety nibbles, suspicious rips here and there and books OUT OF ALPHABETICAL ORDER!

I have been pondering for some time as to what the problem could be and WHO could be causing such mischievous chaos.... There could only be one culprit! That cheeky little yellow monster Nibbles, word has it he is now on the loose so LOCK UP YOUR BOOK SHELVES. Nibbles the Book Eating Monster is OUT NOW and he's heading straight for your favourite reads.

'Nibbles' is a book with breath-taking production values, one which leaps off the shelf before you've had a moment to ponder, filled to the brim with familiar faces, a joy to read aloud and a treasure to be kept well away from book eating monsters. Clever thoughtful story telling and breath-taking vibrant illustrations (combined with a deliciously mischievous twist ) make this a book for every child to treasure and remember for decades to come.

...The Making of a Monster

PUBLISHED BY LITTLE TIGER PRESS £11.99 HB
BUY HERE

It is with great pleasure that I can now hand you over to Nibbles Official Monster Handler the ever-so delightful and super talented Emma Yarlett, so she can explain her actions and give us some insight in the creation of this most delightful tinker and his dietary misdemeanours.

Nibbles the Book Monster wasn’t just a book about a monster, it was also a monster of a book.

The first process I began work on within the project was creating his Royal nibbliness himself; Nibbles. Designing him took a great deal of paper and lead-pushing, as I wanted to try and create a creature that was cute (whilst cheeky), friendly (whilst naughty), cuddly (whilst toothsome) and unlike any other picture book monster (whilst also feeling familiar).

This wasn’t easy!

But eventually I stumbled across him on a page of other designs and knew I had met my monster. I threw some paint down and suddenly Nibbles came alive and began to waltz his way through my sketchbook and my mind.

Then began the really tricky bit… Writing the story. I had recently seen elsewhere the idea of having physical books within books, and so this was very much on my mind as I began the book writing process. I had the premise of the idea of a monster being released, escaping, nibbling his way into other books and then being captured (or not as the case may be!) but getting this down onto paper in some sort of loose form was incredibly hard… And trying to explain my ideas of concepts to Little Tiger Press was even harder! They were incredibly patient with me and also gave me their trust and the freedom to just go for it. I’m more than sure I was incredibly annoying to work with at times during this project, so am so super grateful to them for believing in the book and I (and putting up with me!).

Eventually through much mind bending agony a loose form of a book emerged and it got ‘the nod.’

And so began the meticulous process of creating the artwork. Being what I now term; A completely ridiculous kind of illustrator, I decided in my well-thought out way that the best way to create the artwork for this book was entirely by hand.

Now, my reasoning for this was and still is that I am completely in love with creating physical art with my physical hands. There’s just something in me that cannot resist the magic of paint, glue, paper and all other types of things I use to create my art. This love is something I’ve really come to understand in my last few books and so it made sense to me to continue along that thought vein by relishing physical art again.

As lovely as this sounds, it was also incredibly stupid in more than one way, especially for this project….

1. Art can go wrong. Not everything is a ‘happy accident’ and sometimes you just have to start again when a ‘not-so-happy accident’ appears on your page

2. It’s a novelty book. That means everything needs to be precisely placed on the page with not a millimetre of movement in any direction

3. It’s especially annoying when you create very precise art based on your roughs only to realise your roughs were wrong.

4. This page.

5. I could go on…

But as stupid a decision as it was… Would I do it differently if I were to do it again?

Not a chance.

Here are some exclusive photos of the original illustrations in all their glory... such a treat to see first hand all of the hard work and enthusiasm that goes into creating each piece MAGNIFICENT and completely inspiring...

You can buy signed Nibbles prints and more HERE! Grab one before they sell out!