From Mexico my favourite illustrators are Erika Meza, Estelí Meza (they are not related), Juan Palomino, Jimena Estibaliz, Pam Medina and Sofia Weidner. It's a cute story about a ghost who is too shy to speak to anyone but by being himself makes friends anyway. When I started making the book, I didn’t notice how much I had in common with Gustavo, but the more I got to understand him, I realised that telling this story was important for me because I wanted to show that being shy doesn’t mean that you don’t enjoy the company of people – or in this case, monsters! Flavia: The idea for the book came after a tweet I wrote in 2016, where I said that the reason for ghosts to wear sheets was that they are very shy. I have even talked the head into a little revamp of the library so that we can display them properly!

The main difference between Gustavo and me, is that, sadly I cannot do the ghostly things like walking through walls, making objects fly, glowing in the dark or playing the violin. We’ve had this book for a couple weeks now, and last night he was telling me (as we had a conversation during potty time lol) that Gustavo was “scared of the kids…no, not the kids.It was such a pleasure to meet you both, and I really appreciated how smoothly and professionally you ran everything. Yourself and Bob are much cherished in our booky world and I personally really appreciate everything that you do. Alongside a delightful story that holds our attention throughout, the illustrations are detailed and entrancing.

This story deftly weaves themes of inclusion, friendship and being true to yourself with striking artwork inspired by the author/illustrator’s upbringing in Mexico City. I was crushed, and haven’t thrown another party since (except my son’s 1st birthday, which no one came to except one friend 😭). Mat: The design of the whole book, from the cover to the endpapers and everything in between is a delight.So, plucking up all his courage, he sends a very special letter: “Dear Monsters, I would like to invite you to my violin concert at the Day of the Dead party…”With exquisite detail and humour, Flavia Z. As a fun fact, in the graveyard scenes, you can find the names of my late grandparents engraved in the tombstones – Chuta, Lupe, Rolando and Tuto. I was at my last school for 4 years and we had ********* book fairs every term – and every term, I was disappointed by the narrow range of books. Not only is Gustavo the Shy Ghost set within the Day of the Dead, but the warmth between the characters, the interest and unique storytelling delight!

I would love to do some collaborations, or to illustrate someone else’s text, however at the moment my hands are quite full with all my PhD reading and experimentation. He is good at doing all sorts of paranormal things, like walking through walls, making objects fly and glowing in the dark. You can also watch this YouTube video where I share the process behind the scenes, and my inspiration for the artwork.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Some of my favourite characters in the book are Katerina the ‘Catrina’, the elegant skull girl in pink, based upon an engraving by Guadalupe Posada; Alma, the invisible girl who happens to be the prettiest monster in town; and the witch – with a secret name that I cannot reveal yet – who will feature as the main character on my next picture book!