Deirdre McDermott, Walker Books, Children's Book Publisher

Between the lines: children's picture books

Sunday, 24 February, 2013, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

You may not know Deirdre McDermott, but you will know Where's Wally?, Hooray for Fish!,Owl Babies, and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!. Although McDermott didn't write or illustrate any of these books, she and her colleagues at Walker Books have been instrumental in creating these and many other well-loved books for more than 30 years.

A quick scan of the title pages of picture books in our home revealed that many are published by Walker Books, the leading independent publisher of children's books in Britain, or Candlewick Press, its equally successful sister company in the United States. The extensive stable of artists includes the wonderful Mo Willems, timeless illustrator Helen Oxenbury, latest sensation Jon Klassen and teen fiction writer Anthony Horowitz.

I didn't appreciate the role of publishers in the creation of a picture book until I attended a forum on the subject at the Taipei International Book Exhibition. McDermott spoke, along with a French book publisher and literary agents from Turkey and Spain.

Children's books are works of art, so I had always imagined writers and illustrators together presenting their final masterpieces to the publisher. In the way that an artist might take his paintings to a gallery and leave it to the gallery to promote them, I expected a children's book publisher's role in the creative process to be limited to cover art and font type.

It seems that writers and illustrators almost never sit down together to collaborate on a picture book

It turns out that publishing houses do a vast amount more than simply print books and distribute them to booksellers. They lead the creative process from a very early stage. In McDermott's case, when she finds a proposed story that she likes, she will contact an illustrator whose style she believes will best suit the text. Unless the story is presented by an authorial illustrator who will do both the writing and the illustrating, it seems that writers and illustrators almost never sit down together to collaborate on a picture book. With the text and illustrations at hand, McDermott will then work with her team of in-house editors and designers to develop the important elements of placement, graphic emphasis and flow.

What is surprising to me is the reality that, with editors overseeing the text and designers overseeing the visual elements, creating a picture book is not necessarily a didactic experience. The process is so different from the image I always had in my mind: a writer and an artist working closely together in a sun-filled, bookshelf-lined room in a quaint country cottage.

It hadn't occurred to me that Julia Donaldson didn't have to discuss The Gruffalo with Axel Scheffler before he started to illustrate her story, or that Margaret Wise Brown's original manuscript for Goodnight Moon may have begun with: "A wee bunny by the moonlight / was ready to say good night / to his room which was green / and his painting with a funny scene."

The discussions at the forum were a first-hand account of the evolving children's picture book industry. They gave me a deeper understanding beyond what I had learned in my well-thumbed copy of Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles' Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling, which begins by explaining: "Today's picture book is defined by its particular use of sequential imagery, usually in tandem with a small number of words, to convey meaning. In contrast to the illustrated book, where pictures enhance, decorate and amplify, in the picture book the visual text will often carry much of the narrative value."

As McDermott elaborated in the forum, in a good picture book, the text and pictures should not replicate each other, and it should leave a metaphorical space for the reader's imagination. Successful children's picture books transcend cultures and carry universal themes, such as a mother's love and encouragement helping children overcome a challenging situation.

Another panel member at the forum added: "A really good picture book just 'happens'. It cannot be fabricated because children can sense fabricated books and are turned off by them."

The right combination of writers, illustrators and publishers who meld words and images to create a successful picture book is truly magical.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicate to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them. bringmeabook.org.hk

Variations on Three Little Pigs

Resolutions can be restarted at Lunar New Year

Sunday, 17 February, 2013, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

When I lamented that January had flown by and I had yet to follow through on my New Year's resolutions, a wise friend told me that those of us who celebrated Lunar New Year could just start our resolutions again.

So instead of feeling dejected for abandoning my pledges so early, I embraced this second chance - and my husband left me without any additional excuses by presenting me with a new gym membership on Lunar New Year's Day.

It's been a few years since I have made any resolutions at all, so I welcome the Year of the Snake with some enthusiasm. According to fung shui experts, the coming year is one that is meant for steady progress and attention to detail. You need to have focus and discipline to achieve your goals.

Pigs have a special place in my heart. My elder daughter was born in the Year of the Pig, along with a number of family members and close friends. Unfortunately, this new year may not bode well for pigs due to the premise that snakes and pigs do not get along.

To keep mischance at bay, I plan a steady and disciplined continuation of humour-filled days. We often read or re-enact the story of The Three Little Pigs, always singing "not by the hair of my chinny chin-chin" in a taunting, high-pitched voice. By reading aloud my favourite variations on this classic folk tale, I can surely ratchet up the laughter in our home.

This new year may not bode well for pigs due to the premise that snakes and pigs do not get along

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, written by funnyman Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Caldecott winner Lane Smith, tells the fractured story from the point of view of the wolf: "'There has obviously been some kind of mistake,' writes Alexander T. Wolf from the pig penitentiary where he's doing time for his alleged crimes of 10 years ago."

Another version with a twist is The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Helen Oxenbury contributes her warm watercolour illustrations to this first English-language picture book by Greek children's author Eugene Trivizas. Mother wolf warns her three children about the big, bad pig before they set off to build their homes. Pig gives up on the huffing and puffing and resorts to using a sledgehammer and other means to break down the wolves' increasingly fortified homes.

In the end, a delightful surprise helps the pig give up his destructive ways and befriend the wolves.

Huff & Puff: Can You Blow Down the Houses of the Three Little Pigs? is an interactive retelling by Claudia Rueda, with the reader playing the role of the wolf.

Preschoolers will especially enjoy huffing and puffing through the picture book's die-cut holes.

David Wiesner's The Three Pigs is an avant-garde version that is well suited for older children. Wiesner cleverly upends the notion of a surprise twist when the pigs unexpectedly escape the wolf by jumping off the storybook page and into other worlds, where they meet the cat and the fiddle and the cow that jumped over the moon.

My elder daughter was born at the tail end of the Year of the Pig, so a friend mistakenly told her that she was born in the Year of the Mouse. She knows the order of the zodiac animals and loves that the mouse places first. She frowns whenever I try to suggest that she is actually the last-placed pig.

So this column is my subtle way of helping my daughter face the cold hard truth: "Dear child, if you were really born in the Year of the Mouse, don't you think mummy would have more books about mice?" 

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them (bringmeabook.org.hk)

Play-Reading: dramatizing picture books - Julia Donaldson

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Get swept up in your children's play-acting

BETWEEN THE LINES

Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com

I know there are Nobel Laureates and Poet Laureates, but I only recently became aware of Children's Laureates - an award to celebrate outstanding achievement in children's book writing and illustrating in Britain. The current Children's Laureate is Julia Donaldson. Best known as the creator of The Gruffalo, Donaldson is focusing on play-reading, that is, dramatising picture books, in her two-year term.

After studying drama and music in school, Donaldson spent her early 20s busking around Europe with her guitar-playing husband, performing songs that she had written.

She eventually settled back in Britain to write and sing songs for children's television shows. One of her songs, A Squash and a Squeeze, was made into a picture book illustrated by Axel Scheffler. And thus began a successful partnership that continues after two decades and more than a dozen books, including The Gruffalo, Tiddler and Room on the Broom.

As with Donaldson and her sister in their childhood, my daughters are always play-acting. The grown-ups in our home must either participate or sit on the floor, because the pretend play invariably involves using our sofa as a fire engine, castle, or spaceship.

Last week, we joined a group of friends and their children for KidsFest's live theatre performance of Room on the Broom.

The story is told in the easy lilting rhyme and repetition that is Donaldson's signature style. (She has joked that it's hard for her to write lines that don't rhyme.) The live show adds catchy tunes that complement the story well.

Both my daughters enjoy the book, but the older one was anxious about seeing a dragon in the theatre performance. She learned from her friend who had seen the show the weekend before us that the onstage dragon was smaller in size than the onstage witch. She was so delighted with this news that she proceeded to share it with everyone within earshot at the show, without the requisite "spoiler alert" warning.

I find KidsFest shows very appealing because they resemble play-acting. They don't have hi-tech stage sets or elaborate costumes. The Room on the Broom performance consisted of four actors using basic costumes or puppets to play a variety of characters.

After watching the show, my friend and her two daughters came back to our home to play.

We had enjoyed The Nutcracker ballet together last month, and with the added inspiration from Room on the Broom, our girls put on their own five-minute performance of Nutcracker for my friend and me.

Children are naturally drawn to participating in stories, either by acting out parts of the story or by simply joining in the chorus. Play-reading not only stimulates the imagination, but also improves children's reading skills and builds their confidence.

In recent years, Donaldson has been writing material for schools; there is no doubt that she increased the fun level in learning phonics with her Songbird series of early readers from Oxford University Press. A keen advocate of play-reading, she will soon be publishing a series of 36 short plays through Pearson's Bug Club. It is titled Julia Donaldson Plays and includes her own plays and those of other children's authors. Intended for use in schools, each play has six parts, and the idea is for six children to read and swap parts until they are confident enough with the words to perform a rehearsed reading in class.

To try play-reading at home, Donaldson's Play Time is a collection of short plays which includes tips on ways each play can be acted and simple costumes ideas to help children get into character.

Play Time has so much great material for six- to 10-year-olds, I suspect it will be at least a few more years before my husband and I can sit on our sofa however and whenever we want.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them (bringmeabook.org.hk)