Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
Pretty Ugly by David Sedaris
Add Pretty Ugly to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf

Pretty Ugly

Best Seller
Pretty Ugly by David Sedaris
Hardcover $18.99
Feb 27, 2024 | ISBN 9781662665271

Buy from Other Retailers:

  • $18.99

    Feb 27, 2024 | ISBN 9781662665271 | 5-7 years

    Buy from Other Retailers:

Product Details

Praise

Most Anticipated Books of 2024 List, Kirkus Reviews
Most Anticipated Kids Books List – February, Barnes & Noble
Best Books of the Year So Far Ages 6-8 category, Amazon
Kids Indie Next Pick March/April 2024

★“Disgustingly hilarious….Adult readers will recognize hints of Maurice Sendak and William Steig and maybe even a smattering of Tim Burton in this remarkable outsider tale….Consider this little monstrosity a much-needed corrective to smarmy platitudes.”Kirkus Reviews, STARRED

“[..] Demonstrates an appealing, Olivia-esque joie de vivre.” —The New York Times

“For every kid out there who HOPED their face would stick when Gramma said “If you keep making that face, its going to stick like that.” Well, this one’s for them.” Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC

 “The kids you read this to …. will LOVE YOU for grossing them out in this way.” —Elizabeth Bird, SchoolLibraryJournal.com

“Clever + funny – your next read aloud. Hilarious.” Imagination Soup (Best Picture Books of 2024 — so far)

“A book with hints of William Steig and Quentin Blake and Roald Dahl….that’s going to make the kids you read this story to (and make sure it’s a group of kids for maximum effective) scream and laugh all at the same time. It’s gonna blow their little freakin’ minds and they will LOVE YOU for grossing them out in this way.”Elizabeth Bird, SchoolLibraryJournal.com

“You’re absolutely going to love it – it looks ridiculous and gross and funny and wonderfully different to so much that we see in kids’ books nowadays.” —Comicon.com

“Sedaris fans will love PRETTY UGLY, a story that will spark conversations about true beauty, family and character. Illustrations are perfection.  And honestly, who hasn’t wanted to lock themselves in a wood shed for three days?!” — Jessica Nock, Main Street Books, Davidson, NC

“Delighted young audiences … will be demanding repeat readings.” —Booklist

“The brainchild of the literary dream team we never knew we needed….this uproarious tale is already a classic.” —Kirkus Reviews

“I wish you could have seen my daughter’s expression at the reveal—equal parts shock and horror and delight—at the end of PRETTY UGLY (ages 5-7). I’m talking the kind of reaction that could fuel you for another year of reading aloud […] that’s picture book magic for ya.” —Melissa LaSalle, @thebookmommy

“As children we have all been warned if we keep making an ugly face, it might just stick that way.  Pretty Ugly explores this age old warning while teaching us that beauty comes from the inside and is often in the eye of the beholder.” —Manager, Octavia Books, New Orleans, LA

“For any reader who craves a celebration of individuality with a high yuck quotient.” —Publishers Weekly

“Readers will cackle over this one….displays the author’s wicked sense of humor. Falconer’s artwork perfectly channels the story with his simple yet masterful line drawings with a touch of color….for elementary school kids who like wicked humor.” —Youth Services Book Review

”Stresses that a person’s true beauty is on the inside, not on the surface… with a gross-out ending that will make kids squeal as well as laugh. Kids raised on Goosebumps and Shrek will have no trouble enjoying a monster family that acts like a conventional human one — except opposite in every way but being loving and supportive.” —Common Sense Media

“Disgustingly hilarious. Hilariously disgusting. You can never tell where David Sedaris is going and that’s what makes his work so charming.” —Jessica Lordi, Dover Free Library, VT

Author Q&A

From Publishers Weekly www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/94391-q-a-with-david-sedaris.html

What was it like pivoting to the picture book form?
Well, I think it was more than 20 years ago, and it never would have occurred to me to do. But Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly invited me to. They put out a book of comics for kids [Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids]. I was never really a comics reader. So, I guess I thought, it can’t be too hard, you know, children aren’t that bright. [Laughs sarcastically.] And a lot of people who read comics don’t seem to me all that bright. But then I realized, it’s a different way that you have to write. Karl Stevens does those cartoons for the New Yorker and he’s done graphic novels. And when I look at the way he does it… I mean, he does the drawings and the words. He’s fluent in both those kinds of languages.

Your friendship and collaboration with Ian Falconer dates back to before this story, though?
Yes, he did the Santaland Diaries production that was in New York. And so I think we met when he was hired to do those sets, or we might have met at a New Yorker Christmas party. And then I would see him over the years from time to time. He did the illustrations for a book of mine called Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. I have to tell you, I didn’t really consider anyone but Ian, and I was so grateful that he was allowed to do it. I didn’t want to tell him what to draw for each story, because I knew he would be so much better at it.

What was it about your creative partnership that made it special?
We didn’t interfere with each other. Really, I mean, if he had said, like, “Oh, we need to do this, instead,” I would have listened to him, and I would have done it. But we both respected each other and let each other do what we did.

And how does it feel to be bringing Pretty Ugly into the world in this standalone picture book form, sadly after Ian’s passing?
I mean, it’s too bad that he’s not around. I was really shocked and saddened to hear that he had died. I don’t think he would have objected to this. Maybe if he were alive, he and I could have sat down and said, “How do we make this better?” [The original story] was just a page or two in the Little Lit anthology. It was challenging to pick up something that was done so long ago and then to think how I could have expanded that on my own, because there weren’t Ian’s drawings to sustain it. But I wouldn’t have had his go ahead if I added a bunch of things. That didn’t seem fair.

I’m very curious to see how it’s received. Like I said, I don’t know about the workings of the children’s book world. I have no idea of how it might do; I have no expectations. I could see somebody buying it for the pictures because they’re great. It’s more than a little bit sad that Ian isn’t here to sit at a table and sign books with. That would have been nice.

In your author’s note, you credit your sister and fellow comedian Amy Sedaris, who you say “makes the world’s scariest faces,” as a key source of inspiration. Could you talk more about her influence?
Oh, well, Amy just has a rubber face and makes a lot of faces, so I guess I was thinking about her. Gosh, usually I write about real people, so I’m taking part of this person and part of that person and fictionalizing them. Like in Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, that was all fiction, but most of those short stories were me—the faults that each of those characters had were faults that I have, that I was magnifying.

There’s also an interplay of humor and horror in the book, in the imagery. Now be honest: do you delight in creeping out your readers?
I mean, I love it. I was just on the elevator with somebody, and he had some kind of… I don’t know, it was just a monstrosity, like eyes were bulging out of its head. I don’t know if it was a French Bull Terrier or something like that. And I said to him, “I know someone whose dog is so inbred that it’s allergic to its own teeth.” And then I remembered as I said it that it was actually a cat. The person was just horrified.

I’m used to reading things out loud. So, a difference here is I’ve never read this book out loud [in front of an audience]. I recorded it for the audiobook—I added “he said,” “she said,” and simple descriptions, so if somebody was just listening, they could kind of understand what was going on. But usually, I read things out loud. And there are different kinds of laughs, and then there’s a groan, and then there’s a “that’s so hideous, I can’t believe it” groan. And I count that as, you know—if you can gross somebody out like that, I think that’s different than offending somebody. Grossing people out—as an older brother, it was my job in the family to do that, and I still think of it as my job.

It’s a very personal connection you have with the audience.
Because again, you’re having them make a sound. I’d never want to get up in front of people and read something that was serious, to have them be quiet. And then you hear them shift in their seats and cough and then at the end they applaud. How do you know you did a good job, if they’re not making some kind of noise? I mean, I get booed every now and then, but then there’s kind of a grumbling that comes from the audience, like “I don’t know about that.” And I love that.

In the book, your subversion of standard ideas of beauty and especially the scene with the surgeon trying to fix the girl’s face are reminiscent of that classic Twilight Zone episode, “The Eye of the Beholder.” Was Rod Serling on your mind at all when you wrote this fractured fable?
I didn’t think of it until afterwards. And then I thought like, “Oh, right!” That was such a good episode. That was like one of the best of all time.

There’s that twist ending and that universality in your story, too. But it’s not heavy handed with the moral, “beauty is on the inside.” And there’s the yuck factor.
Well, plus, how many lessons can a kid take?

My publisher sent me all these children’s books a couple of years ago, and they really wanted me to write a children’s book. I’m the only writer I know who doesn’t want to write a children’s book. [Laughs.] So I wrote this little thing and then you know, there were notes like, “you have to be more positive” or “you have to teach them something,” and I’m just not interested in that. And it’s not like those lessons stick. If they stuck, we’d all be perfect.

I just love the idea of somebody turning themselves inside out. I mean, can you imagine what you’d really look like if you turned yourself inside out?

There’s a kind of continuity between your essays, which are filled with, shall we say, vivid descriptions of family dynamics, and Anna Van Ogre’s endearingly grotesque family. Were there any surprises or discoveries in bringing your satirical eye and voice to a children’s book? Or did it happen organically?
You’ve got so little time, just in terms of telling a story; it’s a pretty short book. The parts with the grandparents, they’re just supportive. I think Ian made them interesting with his drawings. It goes to show, it really is a two-person job. He took a flimsy story and made it something with his illustrations. And again, I can’t imagine anybody else could have done it as well as he did.

Do you see yourself revisiting this age group?
Well, I mean, if I could dig Ian up.

I wrote something a couple of months ago, but it is so offensive that no one would ever publish it. I guarantee you. It’s not dirty in any way, but it’s just deeply offensive to everyone. Everyone in the world would be offended by this book. But you know, everyone would be offended by it equally.

Looking for More Great Reads?
21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read