34 MARCH 2020 http://www.writers-online.co.ukChoice spreads
The Picture Book Prize 2019 showed WM writing for children talent in full force.
Amy Sparkes is excited to talk to the winnersA
nother year, and another amazing turnout for the Picture Book Prize! Congratulations- and thank you – to the 445 people who entered. We thoroughly enjoyed reading your wonderful stories.
Congratulations to everyone on the longlist, the shortlist and especially to our three winners:
How long have you been
writing for?
The first time I can remember people
liking my writing was when I wrote a
poem about fireworks at age seven, and
I’ve wanted to ‘be a writer’ ever since. As a
grown-up, two things got me started. The
first was when I found myself redundant.
I decided to spend the time between then
and getting my next job by writing a story
which became my first major project: a
children’s fantasy novel.
The second thing came while I was
working as a primary school librarian. I
had been writing poetry for displays and
decided it might be fun to write fourteen
sonnets per month for fourteen months.
Looking back over the results, you can
clearly see the development of a style from
the first to the final sonnet. So it’s taken
about ten years and a great deal of very
consciously honing my skills to get to
where I am now. Why did you enter the
competition?
I only found out about the competition
three days before the deadline, when I
had a huge writing project to finish by
the weekend. But I kept on thinking that
if I didn’t give it a go, I’d see the winners
being announced and think, ‘I should
have entered that,’ (as I have done many
times before) so I took some time out,
brushed off an old manuscript which I
thought was funny, gave it a good spit-
and-polish, crossed my fingers and sent
it off.What was your inspiration?
Since getting longlisted, I’ve had people
saying how much they like the title. We are
all familiar with ABC books and the (often
predictable) march of apples, bananas, cats,
etc. It seemed like it might be amusing,
therefore, to do one where the letters didn’t
match up with the list of things.
The challenge then became how to
create a narrative or character which
would take readers beyond the initial
funny concept and give them a reason
to read to the end. That’s when I came
up with the idea of the Aardvark – who
thinks he will be the star of page 1 –
getting increasingly annoyed with whoever
is writing the book. In doing so, he also
becomes a stand-in for the audience.Top tips- It’s important to practise writing, a lot,
because you’ll have loads of bad writing
to get out of the way before you can
start writing the good stuff. - It helps to practise telling stories to
children and to talk with them about
the stories they like. I’ve been a Sunday
School teacher for twelve years, which
has really helped me get a sense of when
to be serious, when to make jokes,
when to make things super simple, and
when to not worry about whether or
not they understand. - Listen to people who know more than
you. There are lots of people who’ll give
you the advice; the difficulty is to get out
of your own way enough to listen to it.
Judges’ comments: David’s story was
funny and creative. The wackiness was
brilliant and the main character was
memorable and engaging.3rd PRIZE WINNER
David Wadsworth – A Is For OctopusTwitter: @OrangeEverydays
Website: http://www.wadsworthcreative.comTitle page
A is for...
An aardvark prepares for his big
moment. He is the ‘A’ in this alphabet
book and is very excited.Spread 1 (left)
A is for OCTOPUS.
An octopus looks pleased with itself.(right)
“???”
The aardvark is absolutely devastated
at this unexpected thwarting of his
moment.Spread 2 (left)
B is for YAK.
“Excuse me.”
A large yak chews on some grass. The
aardvark looks out from behind it,
trying to get the reader’s attention.