HarperCollins falls for Bright's Love Monster story as CBeebies series starts

HarperCollins Children’s Books has fallen for a new Love Monster story by Rachel Bright, a week after the launch of a new CBeebies series.

World rights were secured by Alice Blacker, publishing director, Picture Books, from Mandy Suhr at the Miles Stott Agency and will publish simultaneously in hardback and paperback in April 2021.

Blacker said: "We’re so thrilled to be publishing another wonderfully witty and heartwarming adventure featuring Love Monster from Rachel Bright. How exciting to introduce a new generation of readers to this brilliant character!"

The new animated pre-school series “Love Monster”, which features the only monster in Fluffytown, runs during the weekday Big Fun Time slot, co-produced by Boat Rocker Studios and UYoung. It uses the voice skills of George Takei as Elder Panda, Tamsin Greigas as narrator and beatbox artist Darren Foreman as the Love Monster.

In addition to the new picture book, Bright’s existing Love Monster titles will be re-jacketed and re-issued to coincide with the series. Love Monster and Love Monster and the Last Chocolate will be re-issued in April 2020, followed by Love Monster and the Scary Something in September 2020 and Love Monster and the Perfect Present in October 2020.

Bright said: “When I woke up at 5 a.m. with the idea for the first Love Monster story and had to rush downstairs to sketch him before the sun came up, I knew that something a little bit magic was happening! Seeing him go on to have so many adventures and now leap from page to screen is just about as thrilling as it gets for an author and I am so excited to be crafting a fifth book for the classic collection.”