A great story about making friends by being yourself and the illustrations are a constant visual delight.

Mat: The design of the whole book, from the cover to the endpapers and everything in between is a delight. I was at my last school for 4 years and we had ********* book fairs every term – and every term, I was disappointed by the narrow range of books.By the way, Candlewick Press (English) edition features Gustavo hiding in the shape of a book under the dust jacket. The Klaus Flugge Prize is funded personally by Klaus Flugge and run independently of Andersen Press. I’ve been seeing this book on Pinterest/ig influencers’ photos of their kids’ seasonal bookshelves and I wasn’t sure about it—I am very picky about what messages I am representing to my toddler through books, and like them to have nice illustrations as well. Mat: There is so much going on in some of the spreads: Gustavo’s opening introduction; the monster-children playing around the fountain; and the celebration at the end.

Mat: I got the feeling, when reading through the book, that the whole cast of Gustavo had a special place in both the story and in your heart. In Mexico we have a widespread tradition of hand lettering, you can see it everywhere, so I designed and traced the letters because I wanted them to have the same aesthetics as the drawings.There was just the right amount of choice to suit everyone without being overwhelming and I received comments from parents and staff about the quality of books offered compared to previous sales which have always been based around current crazes and well known celebrity authors.