About Picture Books

I’ve been thinking a lot about picture books recently. I’ve been trying to analyse what works and what doesn’t. I’ve treated myself to some books on the subject but more about that in a minute. 

First of all I want to remind you about The Picture Book Den. It’s hosted by eight successful children’s picture book writers, including Pippa Goodhart, and there’s always something there to inspire. Today Pippa's blog post is called Pick a Book, Any Book! Do pop over and have a read.

While I’m on the subject of Pippa Goodhart, her latest picture book has just been published.

Little Nelly’s Big Book illustrated by Andy Rowland  

It’s about an elephant who thinks she’s a mouse. Pippa blogged about this book in a previous Picture Book Den post here where she talks about the importance of pictures in books.

It may not be obvious to anyone buying copies of the amazingly successful Winnie the Witch books that these too are written by Pippa Goodhart. The original character was created by Valerie Thomas but Pippa has been writing them for several years and very entertaining they are too!

Winnie Goes For Gold with illustrations by Korky Paul will be out on March 1st.

If you can’t wait until March then you can get any of her other Winnie stories including Winnie Shapes Up and Winnie Takes the Plunge on Pippa's website here and they’re all illustrated by Korky Paul.

I recently bought myself a fascinating reference book. It's called Children’s Picturebooks – The art of visual storytelling. It’s by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles and it’s packed with information and inspiration about writing picture books. Right now I’m looking at its analysis of word and image interplay. Pictures can be used to either illustrate, to fill in the gaps or as a counterpoint like the well-known Rosie’s Walk where the fox never gets a mention.

I knew about these different styles. We’d discussed them when I went on a course about Writing for Children many years ago but I needed reminding and they’ve helped me to make some drastic changes to one or two manuscripts that are about to go out so I’m keeping quite a few things crossed because it’s almost a year since I had a book accepted for publication.

Maybe some of Pippa’s magic writing dust can float down upon my fingers!!

Springtime and a Good Read

It feels like spring is on the way. I know it’s only February but the sun is shining this morning. There are flowers struggling through... 

I photographed these Hellebores this morning in our garden.

...and the birds are singing in a slightly different way. I can’t quite say how, maybe a higher note, maybe more cheerily. You know what I mean, don’t you? Anyway all the bushes have new buds appearing and they’ll soon be opening and talking of new things...

[apologies for a truly groan-worthy DJ link] 

Annalisa Crawford’s new book, Cat and the Dreamer, is out this week on Kindle and as a pdf. Here’s the blurb:

Cat and the Dreamer 

published by Vagabondage Press

As a teenager Julia survived a suicide pact while her best friend, Rachel, died. Julia’s only escape from her guilt, and her mother’s over-protection, is her imagination. When Adam arrives in the office Julia’s world takes a startling turn as she realises reality can be much more fun than fantasy. Finally she has someone who can help her make the most of her life. But can she allow herself to be truly happy?

Annalisa told me that her book is now on Good Reads. I’d never been to that site before so I clicked the link and had a prowl around. It seems like a great idea, getting suggestions of books you might enjoy based on the books you've recently read, but when I tried to join up, it wanted to know a lot about me and my contacts. Maybe I’m just being super-cautious but has anybody had a bad experience through joining Good Reads? Or would you recommend it as a the next best thing to having your own personal librarian?

My Cats are Fat

It’s official. 

The vet has declared that both Mabel and Charlie are overweight. I knew that Mabel was a big girl but, in comparison, Charlie looks like a dot. Apparently she’s not.

It’s almost a year since we adopted them from the RSPCA and so it was time for their annual jabs, or MOT as daughter calls it. We discovered something about the girls even before we arrived at the vets. They miaow in harmony. [They usually purr and brrrp at home.] Mabel, being the larger cat, surprised us by having a higher pitched miaow to little Charlie who has a thick, double-cream voice. We had to smile at them even though we knew they weren’t happy girls.

Once at the vet’s they fell into a sullen silence. They must have known what was about to happen. It wasn’t the flea check. They passed that without a twitch and the heart check and neither of them noticed their jabs. They weren’t even concerned about the news that they have a bit of tartar and may need some dental treatment at some stage, but to be told that they must go on diet was not what they wanted to hear. They do love their food.

Over the years I’ve had many cats, all rescue and usually with delicate digestions and food fads as long as your tail. These girls are solid [according to Mr Vet, Mabel is 5.75 kg and Charlie is 4.69 kg] and they’re almost always hungry. I’ve bought a large bag of the light version of their usual dry food and we’re slowly moving them over to it plus we’ve reduced their wet food, just half a sachet each a day. They’re not happy. In fact, they’re furious. So I now have a problem. How do I survive my cats’ new diet regime? Any kind-to-cats suggestions gratefully accepted.