What can the brilliant essayist David Sedaris bring to the children’s picture book genre? Nowt much it turns out. A little girl ogre makes faces - until one day her face gets stuck like that.
Hmm.
Yeah… it’s underwhelming stuff, but maybe that’s because I thought Sedaris would have had a cleverer story to offer up rather than some well-known old wives’ tale rehashed with ogres. Apparently it’s inspired by his actor sister, Amy Sedaris, who has a penchant for making silly faces.
Ian Falconer, who illustrated one of Sedaris’ previous books, Squirrel Meets Chipmunk, reunites with Sedaris to draw this one and his pictures are… fine. They’re nothing that special, much like the story.
Death weirdly looms over this children’s book. Sedaris dedicates it to his sister Tiffany, who killed herself a few years ago, and Falconer himself died after completing this book.
Not that I read enough children’s picture books to know - I read this one purely because I’m a David Sedaris fan and was curious to see his latest project - but I feel like even by the standards of the genre, Pretty Ugly is pretty crappy.
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