Coming Fall 2024!
The Mud Puddle Monster
by Thomas Pugh
Illustrated by Teri Rochford
New children’s book available this fall – $20
About The Mud Puddle Monster
When I was a young boy of about five, and my sister was around three years old, our mother would read to us at least a couple of nights each week. Most of the time, she would sit on the edge of the bed while Beth and I lay perfectly still under the covers, eagerly listening to the story of the evening. We had a number of old worn children’s books to choose from for our nightly readings. Among our favorites were “Little Black Sambo,” the fairy tales by Grimm, “Peter Pan,” and several others. However, my favorite was “A Child’s Garden of Verses” by Robert Louis Stevenson.
These books contained many very simple stories, each accompanied by equally simple illustrations. Some of these illustrations were little more than a series of pencil marks that suggested the shapes the artist wanted to portray. The artist wasn’t attempting to add any more detail than what was absolutely necessary to provide very basic context to the story. That was also the beauty of the illustrations, they only provided just enough information to allow a child’s imagination to fill in the blanks, completing the picture and background in their mind. I remember vividly how I would mentally fill in the details around these basic pictures.
The primitive nature of the drawings let me, as a child, envision what the rest of the story might need. If all parts of each story were fully laid out then the imagination never develops to its fullest. This freedom to imagine allowed the stories to come alive in my mind, making them easier to see with my mind’s eye. This is the essence of what we aim to accomplish with our simple little book. We want to encourage a child’s imagination to fill in the blanks, so they can easily picture the story as their mind needs it to be, whether it takes place next door or on the other side of the world. By providing just enough detail, we hope to inspire young readers to engage their creativity and bring the stories to life in their own unique way.
Happy reading!
Thomas Pugh
