BOOM!
Written by Benjamin Brooks-Dutton & Designed by Daniel Walsh
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: World, Film/TV and all other rights handled by the bks Agency
A children's story born in lockdown.
In April 2020, a London artist went into lockdown and came up with an idea. What if he could do something to keep the imaginations of quarantined and home-schooled little monsters busy while raising money for NHS charities?
The idea was simple: children would dream up a monster, parents would pass along their weird and wonderful words, and Daniel Walsh would bring them to life in watercolour. And with that Request a Monster was born.
Hundreds of requests later, and with thousands of pounds raised as part of the NHS Charities COVID-19 Urgent Appeal, Daniel had created an irresistible lineup of marvelous monsters. Then one day, a monster request came in from the nine-year-old son of a writer, sparking a conversation about a book. Benjamin and Daniel got talking about whether the characters imagined by kids in quarantine might be able to live on beyond lockdown.
Together, they have created a children’s book concept that captures a major moment in history in a timeless, tender and touching way.
This is BOOm! (created on Zoom) — a picture book for ages 3 to 6.
Storyline:
When every child stayed at home and the monsters had no one to scare. This is the story of quarantine from a totally different point of view. We meet the monsters who found themselves lonely and afraid, and an inventive little girl named Reily (who’s usually very frightened of monsters) who had an idea that would bring them all together and take their fears away.
In the story, Reily invents BOOm! - a video-call service for lonely monsters - and invites them all to dial in from their homes and habitats. Perhaps the bravest thing she can do is make the monsters her friends.
All of Reily’s monsters were dreamed up from the imaginations of real children during lockdown.
Benjamin Brooks-Dutton’s wife, Desreen, was knocked down and killed by a car as he walked beside her, pushing their two-year-old son in his buggy. Life changed forever. Suddenly Ben was a widower deep in shock, left to raise their bewildered child alone.
In the aftermath Ben searched for guidance from men in similar situations, but it appeared that young widowed fathers don't talk. Well meaning loved ones admired his strength. The unwritten rule seemed to be to 'shut up, man up and hide your pain'.
Lost, broken and afraid of the future, two months after his wife Desreen's death, Ben started a blog with the aim of rejecting outdated conventions of grief and instead opening up about his experiences. Within months Life as a Widower amassed a worldwide audience united in grief and became the precursor for Ben's first book - the Sunday Times Bestseller, It’s Not Raining, Daddy, It’s Happy.
Since then, Ben has written widely about bereavement and family life for almost every national UK newspaper and many magazines. He also co-produced the 2017 BAFTA-winning BBC documentary Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum & Dad.
In 2019, Ben devised and edited an e-book - Lost for Words: Advice for Children About How to Deal with Grief - in support of Children’s Grief Awareness week. He wrote sections of the book with his nine-year-old son, Jackson, who charmed TV audiences when he opened up about his mum on BBC Newsround, ITV, Channel 5 and Sky News.
Ben now co-runs the award-winning diversity consultancy, The Unmistakables.