UK: Ahmet Zappa, son of rocklegend Frank Zappa, promotes his first children's book "The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless" in London

Record ID: 640817

  • Title: UK: Ahmet Zappa, son of rocklegend Frank Zappa, promotes his first children's book "The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless" in London
  • Date: 17th August 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) AHMET ZAPPA, SAYING (JOKING) "I love kids books, kids are so funny. I'd love to have one some day... you know ... just to put in the oven. I'm a big fan of delicious meat, you know tender meat. It's probably the best answer I can give, why write children's books? So I can cook children and eat them, like, like the monsters do in my book. Is that weird?" BOOK BEING OPENED TO SHOW FIRST PAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) AHMET ZAPPA, TALKING ABOUT HIS CHILDHOOD DYSLEXIA, SAYING "I would look at a book and er, I would miss words, miss whole sentences my eyes wouldn't track properly. It just wouldn't make any sense, so reading aloud would be really embarrassing umm it, it just made me rageful. That I couldn't do something that, like the person sitting next to me." ZAPPA SIGNING BOOKS AND DRAWING MONSTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) AHMET ZAPPA, SAYING "My fondest memories were sitting around the dinner table, breakfast table talking, talking with my dad trying to make him laugh and er, you know, you might make a little monster noise, one of the things. (LAUGHS) remember he was having a big bowl of cereal and a, this game we would play er every time he would lift a spoon to his mouth, you would make the monster sound effects uh, the inappropriate super-human mouth chewing noises. So uh, it won't, it won't really look so good without someone actually eating the food, so you could dub in this sound effect later on. But you add the more, bigger crunchier noises (MAKES THE CRUNCHING/EATING NOISES). You know, those sort of things, or add a little monster roar in there which I'm quite fond of, so I'll give you an example (DOES MONSTER ROAR). That was always a very pleasing monster noise that would you know, make my father laugh a lot. So, they were some good memories. "
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA4FIJEO58FKI3X11SCU1XJOTZA
  • Story Text: Ahmet Zappa is no stranger to strangeness, growing up with rock legend Frank Zappa as a dad and siblings by the names of Moon Unit, Dweezil and Diva. He is a painter, musician, actor and well known TV personality in the United States and has now written his first children's book "The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless".
    On Wednesday (August 16), Zappa was in London for an informal book-signing session and Reuters Television caught up with him. "Monstrous Memoirs" is the first in the McFearless trilogy, and Zappa jokes why he's decided to write for kids:
    "I love kids books, kids are so funny. I'd love to have one some day... you know ... just to put in the oven. I'm a big fan of delicious meat, you know tender meat. It's probably the best answer I can give, why write children's books? So I can cook children and eat them, like, like the monsters do in my book. Is that weird?"
    In the book, Max and Minerva McFearless discover that they are the youngest in a family of Monsterterminators and are sent on a dangerous quest to find their missing father, who has been kidnapped by revenge (and probably -people)-hungry monsters. Aided only by Ms. Monstranomicon - a living, breathing book containing recipes guaranteed to defeat even the grisliest of monsters - the siblings (who don't get on that well) embark on a perilous and exciting journey...
    As a child, Zappa suffered from dyslexia and dropped out of school at the age of twelve. His parents, to placate the authorities, founded a school for him and told him to get himself a diploma. Zappa hopes that children with similar learning difficulties to him will still enjoy his book and for that he included artwork so that they could still follow the story even if they found it hard to read.
    "I would look at a book and, er, I would miss words, miss whole sentences my eyes wouldn't track properly. It just wouldn't make any sense, so reading aloud would be really embarrassing umm it, it just made me rageful. That I couldn't do something that, like the person sitting next to me", he remembers.
    Zappa fondly remembers his dad who died of prostate cancer in 1993. He would often sit and watch monster movies whilst his dad was working in his studio. And there are more episodes from the Zappa breakfast table that he laughingly remembers:
    "My fondest memories were sitting around the dinner table, breakfast table talking, talking with my dad trying to make him laugh and er, you know, you might make a little monster noise, one of the things. I remember he was having a big bowl of cereal and a, this game we would play er every time he would lift a spoon to his mouth, you would make the monster sound effects uh, the inappropriate super-human mouth chewing noises. So uh, it won't, it won't really look so good without someone actually eating the food, so you could dub in this sound effect later on. But you add the more, bigger crunchier noises You know, those sort of things, or add a little monster roar in there which I'm quite fond of, so I'll give you an example That was always a very pleasing monster noise that would you know, make my father laugh a lot. So, they were some good memories. "
    Frank Zappa was a prolific, experimental and sophisticated musician who made over seventy albums. Married twice, he had all of his four children with Adelaide Gail Sloatman, with whom he remained until his death. Ahmet Zappa put a lot of his happy childhood memories into his book:
    "For me, my dad, my mother, my brothers and sisters, I love my childhood and I, I put a lot of that in the book. So I ... look forward to it... you know, childhood, fatherhood."
    "The Mnstrous Mmoirs of a Mghty McFearless" is the first in the trilogy and Zappa is already penning the second. Disney has bought the rights to a film and so the McFearless look set for a promising future.
    For Zappa, overcoming his learning difficulties and writing this book has been an extraordinarily satisfying achievement:
    "It's a real, a real personal achievement for myself. I, I feel, I feel... smart."
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