SNIFFING

'I smell the mouse with my wet, black nose.'

With each new book, I try and do an accompanying workshop. I thought the theme of the workshop based on ‘Mouse in the House’ could be the senses; sight, hearing, smell and touch.

I had a chance of airing this new book and the new workshop too at the Wisbech Reads Festival.

    Parents with their toddlers in push chairs arrived at the gazebo in the middle of Orchard School Primary School playing field where I had a display of artwork and some props as part of an event promoting family learning. First I read the story and we looked at the pictures. Then came an activity linked to the senses.

    'Touching' was the easiest. Babies all seem to have grown up with touchy, feely books and the babies at my workshop solemnly fingered the different textures I had brought with me. ‘Seeing’ was a little trickier but we were able to play a modified game of ‘I spy’ without using any letters. ‘I spy my Mum’s eye, my Dad’s nose, etc.’ ‘Hearing’ was fun; I had all kinds of things that made noises in my bag. The tots were looking quite alert by now. But 'smell' and sniffing things, was problematic. This sense, like taste, has the potential to disgust or even bring on the sneezes. So I asked the parents to have a sniff of the scents first. In my little sealed jars I had some chocolate powder, a cinnamon stick, mint leaves and a lily flower. The parents decided whether their child would like a particular smell and the sniffling passed without mishap and my workshop ended without tears…until... a great gust of wind hit the gazebo, knocking over the flip chart, scattering pens and pencils and blowing away my artwork. 

MOUSE IN THE HOUSE

I dedicated Mouse in the House to Connor, who is eighteen months old and can point to his eyes, ears, nose and fingers. His cousin, Liv, is two years old and starting to link her eyes to ‘seeing,’ her ears to ‘hearing,’ her nose to smelling and her fingers to touching. 'Mouse in the House' is the new Plaister Press book and is aimed at the very young child beginning to become aware of the senses. 

 Is there a mouse living in this house? Well, the bird has seen it,

 the squirrel has heard it,

 the dog has smelled it and the cat has even touched it. But this is no ordinary mouse…

This is a simple, question and answer mystery story that I chose to write in the style of a nursery rhyme with the rhyme running over the page turn. I matched this two page rhythm with a parallel rhythm in the pictures. Each animal is first seen on a double spread, followed by a close–up after the page turn where the rhyme falls; like a camera zooming in, on the eye, ear, nose and paw (in the case of the cat.)
It took me a long time to arrive at a style of illustration to match this story. Reading to both Connor and Liv, I realized that they didn’t need flat primary colours to be able to read pictures. So in the end, I settled for large painterly double page spreads in water colour with a scratched texture and simple bold patterns. The technique I used for this was to put down a dark ground colour first, then coat it in white gouache which I scratched with a pen nib at the point of drying. I'd recently seen an exhibition of Winifred and Ben Nicholson's paintings at Kettles Yard and was influenced by their scratchy look.

2015 SOUTH SHOUT FESTIVAL

I took part in the South Shout Festival, again, working over three days with children from South London schools.

At the start, the  first ideas were all very much linked to the children’s environment – Tesco’s kept cropping up; their leisure pursuits – horror movies, video games and a lot of knives and murder; and how they were feeling – hungry – chicken and burgers featured large. And then the fire alarm went off; we’d all been told no practice alarms were scheduled for the day so if the fire alarm went off it was for real. Everyone up ended up in the street and although we weren’t meant to take anything with us, all the packed lunches came too. One boy told me he was so afraid when he heard the alarm, his heart started beating hard and fast – later he got that sensation into the climax of his story. Perhaps every creative writing class needs a fire alarm to go off.

When we all reconvened after lunch and it was my turn to nudge ideas along through a bit of drawing, I was relieved to see we were moving beyond Tesco’s,

to other settings,

where the chickens came alive

and horror was pinned down creatively in images and, later, words.

At the end of the three days, the children said that what they liked best about the South Shout Festival was the way the authors and illustrators, who had all volunteered their time, listened to their stories individually.

THINGS THAT CAN COMFORT

Well, mine was a lamb – his name was Baa-nim. The only bit of Baar-nim that had magical comforting powers was his tail which I rubbed against my nose. Baar-nim’s tail had to be replaced several times during my childhood and now it is gone for good.

One of my sons didn’t need a special thing; just sucked his thumb. The other two did; one had a ‘Shawly’ (originally a beautiful shawl knitted by a Scottish neighbour at his birth) and the other a ‘Bompy;’ a striped football scarf. ‘Shawly’ and ‘Bompy’ survived surreptitiously all through Primary school; were both smuggled into Cubs camp and hidden at the bottom of sleeping bags. My sons weren’t the only Cubs with comforters. Hidden in every sleeping bag in every tent was some sucked, worn, unravelling, but very precious thing, that mustn't be discovered for fear it would be mocked.

Now there’s money to be made out of comforters: little creatures designed with dangly bits to suck and stroke that regularly have to be replaced. This little girl needs at least three at night plus several more replacements in the washing machine. But her army of bunnies do the trick because with them all around her, she’s happy to go to bed and doesn’t mind the dark.  

When I drew the mouse in my new book, I decided to turn it into a thing that can comfort with a bit of cloth attached for rubbing and fingering at bedtime. 

A BOOK FOR A BABY

I wanted my new book to be for a baby, this baby – Connor – seen here looking at some of the early roughs. I thought, initially, this would be a board book but after studying the costing realised there would be a better return if it were a picture book.

 Not all babies chew books and if the book is in real danger of being eaten it can always be put away, out of reach, after being read. 

These roughs look as though they could have been eaten too but they weren’t, possibly because Connor had just had a good breakfast.

ON THE ROAD

Notes made while away from my desk doing a month of school visits

25 Feb

 Feeling nervous. Have I allowed myself to be over-booked this year in the weeks before and after World Book Day? It’s so tempting to say ‘yes’ to everything. A serious risk of collapsing from exhaustion before I'm through. 

26 Feb 

Today is my first school visit since the autumn. A jolt to the system after many quiet months at my desk illustrating – suddenly I have to find smart clothes to wear and get out of the house in time for a rush hour drive. It was inevitable I’d forget something vital today - my packed lunch - and as a result was famished by break time (no biscuit tin in the staff room) and £4 wasted on a grizzly school lunch.

4 March

Done several schools now in Hampshire and Hertfordshire; have my morning departure down to a fine art – a big note reminding me to bring a packed lunch. Really enjoying working with the children. I encourage them to be illustrators and do a first character sketch. Teachers look anxious as pencils and rubbers are replaced with A3 paper and black felt tips, then are surprised at what the children can do. The key to it all is me doing a very quick messy sketch on the flip chart first. The children know they can match it. You can’t go wrong  with a sketch, I tell them, and they don't.

5 March 

World Book Day – a lot of fun - children and staff in costumes (no serial killers or grey suits) though hard recognizing some of the staff at the end of the day (the balding ones especially) once pirate wigs and whiskers are removed.

Week 3

Done nine schools, another six to go and a nightmare journey to Bromley today on the M11 and M25 - two traffic jams and a Dartford Crossing congestion charge to remember to pay. But there were high points to the day - opening a new school library and coffee and cakes with the school governors who lingered on most of the morning.

13 March  

All my journeys now are into Norfolk – much easier journeys, no congestion and delays  - just tractors and country lanes. The schools in this county are mostly small rural schools and the names of the children at book signings are easy to spell. As the end of term approaches there is a relaxed atmosphere. One school last week had a bake off and the staff room was awash with chocolate cake. Another school celebrated a teacher’s wedding and there was bubbly at lunch time. 

Today I had a tip off from a school librarian who ran a wonderful school library with a story boat, that the beach was only five minutes away. 

As I had over an hour to kill before the dinner ladies would be finished in the hall where I was to do my afternoon workshops I went down to the shore and came back greatly revived.

 29 March 

Made it! The last day of term and I’m in Hunstanton. The children, here as everywhere else, have been great. What I love about this work is the way they listen to my stories and roar with laughter at the funny bits and then do inspired drawings of their own. 

MOTHER/FATHER -DAUGHTER COLLABORATIONS - in conversation with Joyce Dunbar

Gillian McClure and her father Paul Coltman and their book Tinker Jim in 1992


G: I remember that the collaboration with my father, Paul Coltman, on three picture books TOG THE RIBBER, WITCH WATCH and TINKER JIM, all published by Andre Deutsch and Farrar Strauss & Giroux in the late 1980s and early 1990s felt rather unique at the time, but you’ve done the same thing, Joyce, with your daughter, Polly Dunbar.

J: There aren't many such parent/child collaborations about.
Polly showed early promise. From the age of 5 onwards her Christmas present to me was a tiny picture book she had made. I saved them all - Polly has them now. I was working on books with my husband at the time. I didn’t dream that I would one day work with Polly. It all seemed so far away.

G: Polly must have been a similar age and stage in her career as I was when she illustrated your story, SHOE BABY published by Walker Books in 2005. Did you do anything together before that?

J: Polly was 16 when she published two books of cartoons about teenage life in Norwich.
followed by 4 novelty books.  Then, in 1998 we were asked to do a book for the Family Contact Centres - a place where estranged parents could meet their children on neutral territory (now dismantled of course). This was unpaid, but a great way to start a collaboration.

G: But a big difference between our two collaborations was that my father had always been a poet rather than a writer for children so it was me introducing him to the world of picture books whereas you were already a well established author of picture book and didn’t you share the same publisher as Polly? So was it your idea or your publishers that you should work together on a book? How did it all come about?

J: One day I caught a glimpse in Polly’s sketch book of an old woman stepping over a field of shoes. 6 years later, after many rewrites,  this became SHOE BABY. Polly had already published DOG BLUE & FLYWAY KATIE  with Walker so was well versed in the picture book format, and they took it on. With her student friend Katherine, Polly went on to make SHOE BABY into a puppet show - the start of  Longnosepuppets. The show won first prize at the Brighton festival in 2006 and has been on tour ever since.

G: Like Polly, I’m both writer and illustrator and I found that I was not just illustrating but involving myself in the text as well. This didn’t happen with the first book, TOG THE RIBBER, which was a poem my father had written several years before and it just happened to fall neatly into the 32 page format of a picture book. However, with the next two, WITCH WATCH and TINKER JIM, I worked closely with my father on the text alongside the illustrations as he didn’t ‘think in picture book format.’ Did Polly ask for any changes in your texts?


J: Not for SHOE BABY - where unusually, not a word was changed. However, for PAT -A CAKE BABY -  she was trying out new techniques and had this ingenious notion of making the words part of the pictures. This meant cuts and changes. We had a lot of fun - and sweat - working it out. Because we have a shared sensibility in some ways, it feels like a book by two people rolled into one rather than two separate individuals - a special pleasure for me  because I would love to have been an illustrator as well as a writer. Every publishers dream is the person who can do both.


G: And equally, did you make any suggestions at the rough stage of her illustrations? Or maybe that was all left to the designer at Walker Books? I remember sending the first roughs to my father rather than to the designer for, back in those days, there wasn’t the same close interaction with an in-house designer at the early layout stage of a picture book.

J:Polly worked closely with the designer, Liz Wood, and also with me. She showed me the dummies at each stage and I was allowed to comment. It’s a delicate balance and you have to be careful not to impose anything on the illustrator. Of course, I was just carried away by the sheer joyousness of Polly’s work so it was no problem.

 G: You’ve worked with many illustrators, Joyce, how did working with your daughter compare with other collaborations?

J: Well,  I don’t find many illustrators sitting on the end of the bed in the morning when I wake up; quite often you never even get to meet them. I take great care to keep out of it until Polly is ready to show me. I worked very closely with James Mayhew on the MOUSE & MOLE series, but never interfered or gave instructions. That is a no-no. More usually the publisher sends me the dummies at different stages for comment. The special thing is that we each know where the other is coming from.

G: When my father and I first worked together, I remember Dad finding the whole process of illustration very slow (I was juggling it with a new baby and a house move) and he would keep phoning to try and hurry it along. I expect you’re much more understanding of illustrators and deadlines, Joyce.

J: I never hurry it along, especially now that I have to wait in a long queue while Polly is working on other books.  You have to leave the illustrator to get on with their side of the dance. You are equal partners - except that I do think the illustrator makes or breaks the text. In this case, the illustrator is the inspiration for the text, and the incentive. Without Polly, neither of these texts would ever have been written. I can’t hurry myself along. I had the idea - but couldn’t make it work. Then one day Polly was ill in bed with flu and she did some sketches of these tiny candy babies making a cake - with outsize rolling pins and so on. I knew then that I had to make it work - but it was another 6 years and mountains of scribble before the text was acceptable. Now it all looks so simple.


G: The collaboration with my father ended when Andre Deutsch’s children’s list was bought by Scholastic and David Fickling, our new editor, turned down the fourth book, Proteus, Guardian of the Seals.  This eventually somehow morphed itself into quite a different seal legend, SELKIE and I returned to being both author and illustrator. Your collaboration is not yet over, though, and you have a new book coming out…

J: PAT-A-CAKE BABY comes out in April. There is something so exciting to children about making a cake - so I wanted the words to capture all the fizz and feel and frolic of the process. Polly has taken this as far as it can go - to HULLA-BALLOONY-MOONTIME. The
words, like the cake, seem edible.

Polly Dunbar and her mother Joyce Dunbar and their new book PAT-A CAKE BABY 2015