"Before Shrek made it big on the silver screen, there was William Steig's SHREK!, a book about an ogre who leaves his swampy home to go out and see the world ... and ends up marrying the most stunningly ugly princess on the planet!"--P. [4] of cover.

Who's that singing on the savanna? It's the top-five ugly animals in Africa! The wildebeest, warthog, vulture, hyena and marabou stork swagger proudly across the savanna, rejoicing in their ugliness--and delighting their babies, who think they're perfect just the way they are.

After rebel Tally Youngblood brings down the uglies/pretties/specials regime, fame, instead of beauty, becomes the new world order, and fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse embarks on a dangerous plan to boost her popularity ranking.

A bug is so ugly she scares away the bird that was about to devour her.

When sixteen-year-old Cara, a girl ugly enough to break mirrors, is drawn to a place where everyone can be beautiful, her deepest desire is to return home to say goodbye--and get revenge.

Edmund Rostand's famous story of the romantic Cyrano who is afraid to reveal his love to Roxanne, for he fears that his large nose makes him too unattractive.

"A child makes their way along the Arctic shoreline on a dark day. Everything around them seems as ugly as their mood, from the weather to the fish and mud. This is the place they come to whenever they feel ugly. But as the child closes their eyes and listens, the sound of the waves reminds them to breathe. The tiny krill flick their tails, and the brightly coloured sea stars seem to glow. What they once saw as an ugly landscape is now wonderful and...

Now that the world is in a complete cultural renaissance, fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse, an Extra, just wants to lay low, so when she discovers the secret lives of the Sly Girls, she wants to report their story, but Aya knows that would propel her into celebrity--a status she's not prepared for.

"After a crash disfigures his face and maims his body pilot Oliver Bradford (Robert Young) hides from family and friends in a seaside cottage. There he befriends homely gentle Laura Pennington (Dorothy McGuire). The two marry for companionship -- until some rare magic within the cottage transforms them into ardent and beautiful lovers"--Container.