A Little Book of Monsters: Children's Book
Interview with Fantasy Illustrator & Author Llyn Hunter.
© Joe Lam
Oct 23, 2008
Llyn Hunter's day job involves illustrating some of children's favorite Animated TV Shows and Movies for Sony, Universal, and Dreamworks. When she decided to turn her focus on a personal project involving a children's book with Monsters, Suite101 sat down with her to learn more about her love of fairy tales, mythologies, and monsters.
Suite101: Can you please tell us about your children’s book A Little Book of Monsters?
Hunter: It’s a miniature encyclopedia of classical monsters described in like verse from all over the world. It’s your standard fairytale folklore monsters and it’s illustrated in a style known as chibi in Japan where the head is the same size as the body to make them look cute. And the poetry style is fun to read but still gives factual information about the different creatures.
Suite101: Why did you choose to list the monsters in an A-Z fashion?
Hunter: You can consider it an alphabet book, but there’s just one monster for each letter of the alphabet. So it’s also education, because I feel that entertainment should be educational.
Suite101: Why did you decide to write and illustrate this?
Hunter: I’ve wanted to write and illustrate books all my life. I collect mythology and folktales from all over the world. I’m a personal monster junkie, I love mythological creatures. So I decided after submitting it various publishers over the years, I decide while I’m working as a storyboard artist, I could do a small personal project on a subject that I loved, which is classical mythological creatures.
Suite101: Can you describe some of the creatures you created in the book?
Hunter: None of the characters are created because they are found in classical mythology. The reason why I chose those was because I find a lot people today don’t know where dragons, trolls, or vampires come from. These are myths we’ve carried on for thousands of years. They come from original traditional folktale & mythology and we’ve elaborated and brought them into our videogames. Our modern fiction like Harry Potter has these monsters, which J.K. Rowling researched for her book as well. My book is like a modern beastiary.
Suite101: From where did you derive your inspiration?
Hunter: I collect books of mythology and fairytales from all over the world ever since I was a little kid. I got a hold of my first greek mythology and fairytales of King Aurthur. I found books from my local library which carried these books from Russia, China, and Japan which had these fanciful creatures and I have a passion for those particular tales.
Suite101: And what kind of feedback have you received from readers?
Hunter: That’s the greatest part. I’ve had all kinds of really great feedback from kids who’ve read it in their classes. Kids also read it and use it as a springboard for making their own monsters. Or kids will find their favorite monsters like a dragon or unicorn and will want to know more about their monsters. Some people like the pictures which are really cute, others like the rhymes that are fun and easy to read. Some like learning where a Griffin came from or what a Jinn was or they see a giant squid in Harry Potter and say oh that’s where it came from. It’s really fun to hear such positive responses.
About Llyn Hunter:
Llyn Hunter has worked as a Storyboard Artist in animation for over 15 years. She helped win 2 Emmys for Warner Bros. and has also worked on Animated TV and Films such as Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Hercules. A Little Book of Monsters is her first children's book followed by the sequel, A Little Book of Magical Beings. To learn more about Llyn Hunter, visit Llynsplace.
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