Albrecht’s theme: yeti music
by Alex on March 13th, 2010
And yet another slither of yeti music, this time the theme tune for Albrecht! As you listen, imagine him charging around the Himalayas trying to outwit a Bigfoot!
The Yetis get a theme tune!
by Alex on March 5th, 2010
The Mythical 9th Division have a theme tune, which is probably the most important thing for any bunch of world-saving yetis. The theme tune will soon be gracing the trailer for the book, out in June, but for now I thought it would be nice to simply post the music here.
Go superfly yetis!
The Crystal Palace Children’s Book Festival is back in action
by Alex on March 2nd, 2010
It’s been touch and go as to whether I’d run a festival this year, what with serious book deadlines and a very real new baby to look after, but now that I’m a bit more settled it’s been decided that I’d be stupid not to do it all again. Unlike last year’s festival, though, we’re moving the date to October (we almost have the weekend set - I’ll post a date as soon as I can!).
There are many reasons for this, but the big one is that it gives me more time to make it as good as can be. Last year’s was so successful that we’ll keep the format much the same, and simply do it better. So there’ll be a day of workshops, author readings/signings and a great illustration/comic exhibition. And it will all be in aid of children’s books and comics.
So there’s the obvious twitter feed, and I’ll soon update the website with new info.
It’s exciting to have it all back on the road again!
Wasted words
by Alex on February 18th, 2010
How many words do I waste when writing? A lot. Simple as that.
I’ve been writing and rewriting and finding things quite tough these past few days. I know what I want to say, I know how the characters should act, but getting the scenes just right is proving difficult.
Yes, having a stomach bug at the same time as everyone else in the house has made life significantly harder than it should be, but I need to get used to that. This book ain’t gonna write itself!
So what’s been such a problem? It’s the character interaction within the scenes. I could say so much, but it’s knowing what not to say, that’s important. I write a lovely moment between characters, then delete it, because it says too much. Like I say, wasted words.
But then there’s a poster on my living room wall that says ‘Make do and mend’. This is one of those great Second World War statements, that while working for daily living, doesn’t quite add up for writing a novel. Instead, I like to think that for writing, there’s an added comma between the ‘Make’ and the ‘do’.
I’m forever mending the scenes, patching sentences, tidying up words. It’s the lovely time of graft – that 99% perspiration they all talk about. I’m satisfied that this book isn’t the easy one a writer always dreams of, but I’m surprised by how hard I’m making it for myself.
At least I get to step away and draw the characters. That helps.
Have adult readers hijacked children’s books?
by Alex on February 14th, 2010
I noticed yesterday that the new-ish Mark Haddon book, Boom!, came wrapped with a black band suggesting it was “for children of all ages”. I’m intrigued. There’s a quote on Amazon from the Bookseller review: “A hilarious adventure by Mark Haddon, who has an innate and dazzling rapport with his target audience”. I guess if I work with those two statements, I could naturally come to the conclusion that his target audience is everyone. Or, at the very least, that’s who his publisher wants it to be.
There’s a huge number of adults that read and like children’s books. I’m one of them. I like to think we’re a discerning bunch, and possibly know a good story better than readers who put up with pages of wobble and drivel in adult books. How many adults will finish a book simply because they’ve started it, and not because they’re enjoying it? I bet you those books are for grown-ups. It rarely happens with children’s books – okay, Harry Potter’s “100-page hanging around in a tent” in the Deathly Hallows bored me to tears, but I still got to the end.
But when you see publishers actively selling children’s books to an adult audience, I think there’s a problem. “Children of all ages” doesn’t wash with me. It seems confused, and that can’t be good for anyone, author or reader. One of the reviewers of Boom! on Amazon helpfully writes: “As soon as it arrived I realised that I had made a big mistake because this is very clearly a children’s rather than an adult’s book.”
This readership crossover issue clearly works both ways. Adult’s books packaged as children’s books are as confusing to kids as children’s books for grown-ups.
I was recently chatting to a bookseller about Bog Child, by Siobhan Dowd. The book’s beautifully written, and I’m sure we’ll see it on the BBC as a Sunday night drama at some point soon, but we spoke about it winning the Carnegie prize and she told me how in shadow reading groups within schools, the children just didn’t get it. So how did it win the prize if the children didn’t enjoy it? It was voted for by adults, of course.
Now that’s possibly a different problem – children’s book prizes being voted for by adults, who have different sensibilities to a child – but it highlights the confusion that’s created by not targeting a readership. With children’s books, writing for a set audience is usually imperative to success, and if the book breaks out into other markets, so be it.
But I think the fact of the matter is that children’s books are now judged differently, as much as to how they’ll be received by adults as children. Because of this, children’s titles are often reviewed with an eye to the adult reader, which can be incredibly unhelpful.
I write children’s books for children. It’s lovely if adults like them but they’re not who I write for. It’s unlikely my stories will ever make school reading lists, mainly because I want children to enjoy them. I want my books to be fun and exciting, and I hope they help children think that books are great to read.
I remember I am David sending me to sleep at school, and that’s an awful thing to say. Children’s books shouldn’t do that. They should excite, inspire, and make children readers for life. In contrast, shortly after finishing that book, we read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator in class and I loved it. To me, that says a lot about how to get kids to enjoy reading – save history for the history class.
So let children’s books stand and fall on whether they’re good children’s books for children. If they’re brilliant, adults will like them anyway.
Magic may have gone from the world, but it still resides in children’s books
by Alex on February 11th, 2010
People talk about the rise of fantasy in children’s books relating directly to the increased lack of freedom in the real world. The more society can keep tabs on you - mobile phones or social media - the more children crave a world where they’re allowed to be free and out of contact.
I totally buy this. Books provide that freedom, or at least they allow the reader to experience that freedom from afar. I don’t really know any other medium that can do this.
For a child there’s definitely something to be said for experiencing a world where parents aren’t looking after you, where everything is not plain to see or readily available. And that’s what we children’s writers are trying to do, I think. We’re trying to put the freedom back into a world that’s lost it.
I bought a wood so that our child might grow up to know what it’s like to wander safely, and freely through a wilderness.
The very idea of wilderness, the wild and untamed, really excited me when I was young. There’s a sense of magic in wilderness that you just can’t find in a town or city. And I don’t necessarily mean magic as in Harry Potter. That would be too easy. The magic lies in experiencing things for yourself, discovering things because of what you’ve done, and not looking up the answers to any problems on Google. That magic is often related to not understanding things, and searching for the truth.
For example, there’s that moment when you finally realise what a lyric is to a song, and suddenly the magical aura is gone. It’s not as interesting any more. I’m a solid fan of science and understanding the truth, revealing the magic behind what makes things work, but that’s not to say I want to give my child the answers to everything. That would be daft. I want her to experience the magic in the world, and to do that she needs to be allowed to feel free.
And that’s the strength of children’s books, and the power that we have as children’s writers and illustrators. We are allowed to create a wilderness for children to play in, to imagine themselves in, away from the confines of the enclosed modern world that provides all the answers.
We have a duty to provide beautiful worlds where inquisitive imaginations can grow and go crazy, and we also have a duty to allow kids to feel scared, to feel brave enough to turn the page and face their fears on their own.
The wilderness will make strong minds and strong characters out of children, and I for one applaud children’s books for keeping it alive.
Interviews, yetis and Ponyo
by Alex on January 18th, 2010
If I’m not suffering from baby-induced sleep deprivation, I’m working or doing other such things, so I apologise for even fewer posts than normal. It’s another of those busy times, and the worst part of being so busy is that ideas always flood in when I’m up to my neck in it. Notebooks are filling up once more, but I have even less time to do anything about it now than ever.
So just a quick few things to bring you up to date! There’s a huge interview with me over at Tall Tales and Short Stories. I’ve also heard that the Mousehunter is now going to be published in Hungary, so I’m totally thrilled! That’s another country I need to visit - Budapest looks lovely!
Oh, and I’ve finally got round to watching Ponyo, the latest Miyazaki film.
I loved it, and all it’s done is make me even more excited for the new Studio Ghibli version of the Borrowers, which is released later in the year, I think.
Right then, life’s full of sea monsters at the minute, so I’d best get back to it.
Win real Mousehunter artwork!
by Alex on January 7th, 2010
Faber are running an ace competition to win copies of Mousebeard’s Revenge. The star prize is an illustration of a mouse from the book, which is not to be sniffed at if I do say so myself.
So spread the word and maybe even enter the competition. What have you got to lose? Closing date is 1 February, 2010, so you best get cracking!
Mousebeard’s Revenge, out now!
by Alex on January 4th, 2010
It’s official, Mousebeard’s Revenge, the concluding part of the Mousehunter trilogy is now available, and pretty cheap if you buy it through Amazon. So shout about it from the rafters and every rooftop going, and if you’re in a bookshop - even if you don’t want to buy it - go and ask the store assistant if they have Mousebeard’s Revenge in stock.
I’ll love you all forever.
The Diary of a Mousehunter: part 1
by Alex on December 11th, 2009
This is the first part of Guidolfo Jones’ diary, published here for the first time. His place in history as one of the most daring Mousehunters is assured. Read on to find out why…
DAY 1
And so dear diary, the time has come for me to set sail once more into the great unknown. For I have been commissioned by Lord Cumberling – yes, he of the famous Iserlis Mouse Collection – with the aim of finding a rare Stickleback Mouse. This peculiar mouse can be found on the Island of Mumbar, at the eastern edges of the Great Sea, but the International Mousing Federation has recently deemed the indigenous species off limits to Mousehunters due to concerns over population numbers. The Federation knows best, I’m sure. So our voyage is not going to be as simple a task as it could have been – such is the lot of a Mousehunter.
Thankfully, I’ve heard rumour of another island, some two-hundred miles further east, which may host another small population. It’s thought that they might even be a strain of White-nosed Sticklebacks, and if so, the riches of a successful hunt will be even greater.
Setting forth into uncharted lands always makes the hair prickle on my back with excitement and this time is no different. The maps of the lands to which we sail are scant and badly drawn, and the history books describe incidents of cannibals and man-eating mice in the region. So I am certain an adventure is ours to be had.
We leave tomorrow at dawn. Our fine vessel, the White Hart, is in fine shape: my crew is ready to sail, the stores are full and our spirits are high.
Let the hunt begin!