Blob the fish is excited that he has just won the ugliest animal in the world contest! But the popularity and fame that accompany Blob's win soon go to his head. And the loneliness of his new title goes to his heart. And of course, fame never lasts forever.
"An irreverent and insightful modern fable about beauty, ugliness, the paths to acceptance, and how admiration hijacks our sense of self. ... The illustrations by Tallec lend the humorous story a lovely dimension of tenderness. Blob comes alive as a sensitive creature of contradictions—full of determination yet easily given to dejection, a living fable of ego and insecurity, easy to fault but also easy to love. ... Under Tallec’s subtle brush, we see a difficult realization dawn on Blob—privilege is bestowed largely by chance and little of actual substance separates the most fortunate from the least fortunate. There is something charmingly subversive about the very premise, as paradoxical as the idea of trying to fail at failure. There is also something profound in the questions it raises about our civilizational fascination with beauty and its counterpoint—what does it really mean to be ugly..."—Brain Pickings
“An insightful tale about beauty and self worth. The illustrations are incredible with personality and humor oozing from the pages.” —The Reading Ninja
Author
Joy Sorman was a philosophy professor before she devoting herself to journalism and writing. Her first book was Boys, Boys, Boys, a challenging feminist story about a girl who is a little different. Sorman also works in TV and radio journalism.
Olivier Tallec is an illustrator based in Paris. Following his graduation from the École Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques, he worked in advertising as a graphic designer. He has subsequently devoted himself to illustration and has illustrated more than sixty books, eleven with Enchanted Lion Books including Who What Where? Louis I, King of the Sheep and Big Wolf and Little Wolf and Who Done It? from Chronicle Books.
Illustrated by: Olivier Tallec
Translated by: Sarah Klinger