By Brian Castleforte, Robert James – Workman Publishing (2010) – Paperback – 233 pages – ISBN 0761158820
This is a really fantastic book for the whole family. Who doesn’t love a friendly monster, especially one that you can create, build and love from beginning to end ? It’s also got to be a on the present list for any 5 or 6+ year old, who likes a monster or fifty. We have this book at home, and it is the one that our girls spend their adored ‘daddy time’ with, they all get to make whichever monster they want, and between them, can deliver a new monster to the family in a pretty short time now. The one tip that our Daddy monster has it to use sticky-tape over glue, as that way you get your finished product much faster than waiting for glue to dry. I am still trying to find the time to put the monsters together as a mobile, as I’ve run out of space around the house for them to sit. So, us monsterettes here give this book a big thumbs up, and promise to share the photos when we do get around to hanging our monster mobile. xo
THE BOOK
This is a paper folding book, that now has a cult following amongst graphic designers and illustrators around the world, The creator of the papertoy world ‘Brian Castleforte’ (read his blog here) rounded up 25 of the hottest papertoy designers (from Indonesia, Japan, Australia, Italy, Croatia, Chile, even Jackson, Tennessee) and built this book with 50 original designs that are all prepped and ready for you to pop out, build, and stick (we use sticky-tape in our house, for an immediate result). Each character comes with its own back-story.
THE MONSTERS
Meet Zumbie the Zombie, who loves nothing more than a nice plate of brains and yams. NotSoScary, a little monster so useless at frightening people that he has to wear a scary mask, and Grumpy Gramps, the hairy grandpa monster with his very own moustache collection. That could be one to do with the in-laws perhaps (no offence grumpy grandpa!).
Creative Bus Stop 