Tags
author, children's books, each peach pear plum, miff, philip pullman, raymond briggs, reading, vivienne neale, where's spot
‘Once upon a time in a faraway land, dearly beloved, where they did not have the internet……’
‘They didn’t have the internet?’
‘No dear one, they did not have the internet.’
‘Oh, how did they manage?’
‘Well dearly beloved that is another story but now give me leave to continue…’
Once upon a time in a faraway land there was a woman who had a baby. He was a very sleepy baby and could only stay awake for around half an hour before snuggling back into his cot for the next nap. His mother was really worried he would not have enough stimulation, so at five days old she started to read to him.’
Yes, that was me some twenty plus years ago and my son’s first exposure to books happened when he was just 120 hours old! I introduced him first to the Miffy series by Dick Bruna! You see, I wasn’t very good at baby conversation and thought it was much easier to concentrate on the books than do anything else.
In a very short time he was watching everything and the whole family seemed to take on board the idea that this boy was going to read. Within a few short months we were knee deep in every kind of book imaginable and I too was introduced to some classic illustrators and story tellers which I still have an affection for.
As a reading partnership we quickly moved on from simple picture books to Eric Hill’s Where’s Spot, The Hungry Caterpillar, Nicola Bayley’s Charming Cat series, then Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s Peepo, Funny Bones, Each Peach Pear, Plum and The Jolly Postman too. We loved Mog by Judith Kerr and devoured all of those in every form and even had a copy we could read in the bath. I was sad when Kerr finally killed the cat off in the last book. (How could she ?!!!)
Soon we were making our first steps towards stories with whole pages of words like The Owl Who Was Afraid of The Dark by Jill Tomlinson and The Railway Cat by Edith Nesbit and of course the comic style of Raymond Briggs, whether it was Fungus The Bogeyman or Father Christmas in his swimming shorts. I seem to remember Where’s wally featured in their too.
I was sorry when our picture book days were abandoned having lapped up The Snowman and The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsberg, Kit Williams’ Masquerade and so many beautiful volumes which have been given away for others to enjoy.
It wasn’t long until I too was semi –redundant as a story teller and post bedtime story would be replaced by talking books on a Fisher Price cassette player which lived by the bed. In no time at all, my son was telling me his teacher had spelled elephant incorrectly because she should have used an ‘f’ not ‘ph’!
We wrote stories together, illustrated them, made little books and then the hunt was on to find books that would keep an adolescent boy engaged – now there’s a challenge. I read Francis Spufford’s book a little while back entitled The Boy That Books Built with interest and I don’t know whether my choice of paperbacks had such an impression. Our list went something like this: Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging, Northern Lights Philip Pullman and Mortal Engines Phillip Reeve (they were lean years!) until we landed at Ben Elton! What an odd journey.
Ironically my son is not much of a reader (perhaps he felt he did a life’s worth before he reached the age of 10!. Nowadays he earns his living as a professional drummer and travels the world but what has remained with him is a passion for language and if there is a pun to be made or a joke to be cracked then this is what he does. His Facebook post this morning was:
‘I love my step ladder but I prefer my real ladder.’ Oh dear!
Should I have taught him to read and write? Hmnn the jury is out on that one!
Mind you, he has also just sent me a copy of his first children’s story so, you never know when your kids will acknowledge their influences.
It’s never too early to read to children I say!
Author Bio
Vivienne Neale is the author of The Cashpoint Kid and director of a writing retreat in Portugal. Catch up with her blog at www.awritingretreatportugal.com
The Illustration Machine 