Breaking news for Monster Nanny feature film: Screen Australia invests in development

The wheels are turning with the Monster Nannyfeature film! This family film co-produced by Ridley Scott has received development funding from Screen Australia.

“The monstrous Mary Poppins”, a universally charming award-winning story by Tuutikki Tolonen, published in 22 territories, is being developed into a Hollywood feature film by Scott Free Productions.

“Scott Free Productions’ Ridley Scott and Red Lamp Films’ Sylvia Wilczynski and writer-director Kim Mordaunt are working on the adaptation of Finnish novel Monster Nanny, an action adventure about children whose nanny is a hairy, dusty non-talkative monster. Animal Logic Entertainment’s Zareh Nalbandian is also involved in the project which is intended to be an Australian-UK co-production.”

Read the full article here.

The novel’s English-language edition has received great reviews in the media, among others in Booklist:

“The first in a duology, Tuutikki’s book won the Arvid Lydecken prize in Finland and will have wide appeal among young readers. Within its pages, children outsmart adults, sense the vulnerable emotions of the monsters, and come to depend upon themselves and new friends. Loose-lined ink illustrations add extra humor to this imaginative fantasy, and plentiful dialogue makes it prime for reading aloud.”
— Booklist

Request reading materials here!

Rights sold: Monster Nanny
Orig. publisher: FINLAND, Tammi
BOSNIA, Šahinpašić
BRAZIL, DarkSide Books
CHINA, Beijing Children’s Publishing House
CZECH REPUBLIC, Portál
ESTONIA, Tiritamm
FRANCE, Editions Robert Laffont
GERMANY, Carl Hanser Verlag
HUNGARY, Tessloff Babilon
ITALY, Salani/Mauri Spagnol
LATVIA, Zvaigzne
NETHERLANDS, Luitingh-Sijthoff
NORWAY, Gyldendal Norsk
ROMANIA, Editura Univers
RUSSIA, Rosman
SLOVENIA, Mladinska knjiga
SPAIN (Spanish), La Galera
SPAIN (Catalan), La Galera
SWEDEN, Rabén & Sjögren
TURKEY, SEV Redhouse Kidz
VIETNAM, Nha Nam
WORLD ENGLISH, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
FILM RIGHTS, Scott Free Productions

About author


Tuutikki Tolonen

Tuutikki Tolonen is the author of several acclaimed children’s books, plays and academic articles. She teaches creative writing and has worked as an editor and reporter at Vinski, a Finnish literary magazine for children. For Monster Nanny she received the Arvid Lydecken award.  Her inspiration for the Monster Nanny trilogy sparked during a family breakfast. “My son Leo, then six, said: ‘I heard on the radio yesterday that all moms have to go on vacation and monsters will take their places,” she says.

Her other bestselling series is the Agnes-series, of which the first book "Agnes and the Garden of Dreams" was in 2021 nominated for the Arvid Lydecken Award, received an honorable mention for the Runeberg Junior Award, and won the Luku Varkaus Award. Tolonen tells that the inspiration for Agnes comes for her interest for weird and inexpicable tales, ghost stories and mysteries: "I wanted to write a book my daughter Aili, then nine, would like to read - not too long, not too scary, but very curious."

Bibliography


2024, Picture Books (0-3 Years)

The Secret Ones

Tuutikki Tolonen


2022, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Agnes and the Shadow in the Window

Tuutikki Tolonen


2021, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Agnes and the Mysterious Manor

Tuutikki Tolonen


2020, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Monster Message

Tuutikki Tolonen


2020, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Agnes and the Garden of Dreams

Tuutikki Tolonen


2016, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Monster Route

Tuutikki Tolonen


2015, Middle Grade (8-12 Years)

Monster Nanny

Tuutikki Tolonen