Claire Saxby's Blog Tour - There Was an Old Sailor

Welcome to Writing Children's Books with Robyn Opie. Today, Claire Saxby has come back to visit us as part of her new blog tour. Yes, Claire has another picture book, which was released this month. Congratulations, Claire!

Today, Claire is talking to us about There Was an Old Sailor and how she went from idea to book. Sound easy? Let's hear what Claire has to say about that.

Welcome Claire - and over to you.


From Idea to Book – ‘There Was an Old Sailor’
Claire Saxby
http://www.clairesaxby.com

I was sitting watching my son and his circus classmates do their warm-ups when my friend and her daughter arrived. Her daughter stripped off her shoes and socks and joined the others on the mat. My storyteller friend dropped into the chair near me and said ‘I wish someone would write a fishy rhyme…you know…like “There Was an Old Lady”.’ She was just back from a storytelling session and bemoaned the fact that there was no nautical cumulative rhyme in this Year of the Ocean. ‘And everyone wants fishy tales,’ she said.

‘I’m game,’ I said. ‘I’ll give it a go.’

And so the idea for ‘There Was an Old Sailor’ was born.

Easy, I thought. Hah! I should know better. Less words generally means more difficult, when it comes to picture books. Certainly has for me anyway. My first picture book, Ebi’s Boat’ has 198 words.

And when you consider that when you are modeling on an existing rhyme, you can’t fudge any of the lines or play with the structure, it’s a bit like dancing with an octopus in a shower…dangly bits everywhere!

Where to start? Well that at least seemed obvious. The animals. So I built a list of eight sea animals. Krill and whale were my bookends. Made sense, although I worried a little about children not knowing what krill were. The other six animals changed a few times as I played with the rhymes. Most had to be single syllable, so jellyfish became jelly, stingray became ray (more accurate terms any way I discovered).

I shared progress with my storyteller friend and her enthusiasm kept me buoyant when the rhymes wouldn’t come and it all seemed futile. Eventually the story was done and I sent it off to publishers.

No response. Well, yes, there were responses, but nothing to tell me why they didn’t want it. That’s just the way it is, often. So after a few submissions, I was again despondent. Then my storyteller friend arrived with a present for me…a bollard sailor with a wide open mouth. She’d been taking my story into classrooms and kindergartens and they loved it. So her husband had made two sailors, one for her, one for me. We searched shops for the fishy creatures to perform the rhyme. Some were easy…fish are everywhere. But krill? Hmm not so easy. Eventually we found a fishing supply store who gave us shrimp/krill looking lures, complete with hook and sinker. Children love the Old Sailor and love helping to feed him.

Around that time I was asked to do a writing workshop for upper primary children and developed one around the Old Sailor. It was and continues to be a fun and successful workshop. I began to think that perhaps that was the Old Sailor’s destiny, rather than to be a book.

But then I sent out the manuscript once more. Walker Books accepted it and Cassandra Allen agreed to illustrate it. On Feb 1 2010, There Was an Old Sailor hit the bookshops. Magic. Just magic. It only took eight years.

Thanks for hosting me, Robyn.

Thanks for visiting, Claire, and sharing your experiences.

To find out more about There Was an Old Sailor by Claire Saxby, please visit Walker Books Australian web site: http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/Books/There-Was-an-Old-Sailor-9781921150715

Dates for Claire Saxby's Blog Tour

Monday 8 February: Sally Murphy's Writing for Children
http://www.sallymurphy.blogspot.com/

Tues 9 February: Dee White's Tuesday Writing Tips
http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com/

Wed 10 February: Dale Harcombe's Read and Write with Dale
http://www.livejournal.com/users/orangedale/

Thurs 11 February: Robyn Opie's Writing Children's books
http://www.robynopie.blogspot.com/

Fri 12 February: Lorraine Marwood's Words into Writing
http://lorrainemarwoodwordsintowriting.blogspot.com/

Sat 13 February: Mabel Kaplan's Tales I Tell
http://belka37.blogspot.com/

Sun 14 February: Sandy Fussell's Stories are Light
http://sandyfussell.blogspot.com/

Claire Saxby's Blog Tour - There Was an Old Sailor

There Was an Old Sailor
Claire Saxby's Blog Tour

Monday 8 February: Sally Murphy's Writing for Children

http://www.sallymurphy.blogspot.com/

Tues 9 February: Dee White's Tuesday Writing Tips
http://deescribewriting.wordpress.com/

Wed 10 February: Dale Harcombe's Read and Write with Dale
http://www.livejournal.com/users/orangedale/

Thurs 11 February: Robyn Opie's Writing Children's books
http://www.robynopie.blogspot.com/

Fri 12 February: Lorraine Marwood's Words into Writing
http://lorrainemarwoodwordsintowriting.blogspot.com/

Sat 13 February: Mabel Kaplan's Tales I Tell
http://belka37.blogspot.com/

Sun 14 February: Sandy Fussell's Stories are Light
http://sandyfussell.blogspot.com/

Claire Saxby's "Sheep, Goat and the Creaking Gate" Blog Tour

Welcome to Writing Children's Books with Robyn Opie. Today, we have a special guest, Claire Saxby, as she nears the end of her blog tour for her fabulous new picture book, Sheep, Goat and the Creaking Gate. To keep with the subject of picture books, Claire is here to discuss the differences between picture books and school readers. Thanks, Claire.



The Difference Between School Readers and Picture Books by Claire Saxby

I started writing for children about a decade ago. I loved story and I loved children’s stories. My first published book was a 5000-word story for an educational publisher. They had a series of leveled readers and wanted some longer but no more linguistically complex stories for children who had mastered the language at that level but needed something at the same developmental level. Clear?

I’m not sure I understood completely at the time. But I had a story that was the right word length and pitched at the appropriate age group, so I submitted it. It was accepted.

In the years since, I’ve honed (and continue to hone) my understanding of the differences between short illustrated texts for educational publishers and magazines, and picture book texts. This is not about their relative merits, but about the differences between them.

It’s not as easy as saying the education texts have black and white illustrations and picture books color, because many early education texts are now in full color (and some picture books are illustrated in black and white). It’s not that picture books are bigger, although they are, mostly. It’s not that the intended audience is different, because in many ways it isn’t. In both, the story has to engage with the reader; both have to have a beginning, middle and ending – so what is the difference?

Language
An illustrated text for an education publisher (let’s call it a "reader") will have text designed to be read BY a child learning to read. A picture book text may often be read TO or WITH a child and so the language can be more sophisticated. An adult can explain words that may not be familiar to a child, or they may be words that a child has heard, but is not ready to decipher on the page. A reader may focus on a particular sound or use repetition in a particular way. This is seldom the case in a picture book, even when the picture book is in rhyme. The reader, particularly the earliest ones, are often very "concrete" in that the images will help the reader to interpret the text, eg, the words "A cow eats grass" would be accompanied by an illustration of a cow eating grass. In a picture book, the pictured cow may be accompanied by text that indicates the cow is lonely, or tired of eating the same thing every day.

Length
Both picture book (and I’m talking about picture books for the young, rather than picture books for older children here) and the reader will tell "simple" stories (one or two main characters, linear plot, single tense and narrator), but the picture book is likely to be longer. A reader will be short enough for a child to be able to master on their own. There is a purpose in mind. A child will "succeed" at reading this book and be encouraged to read more. They may be eight-, twelve-, sixteen- or twenty-four-pages. A picture book, as a general rule, is 32 pages.

Target Audience
The majority of picture books are targeted at 4-7 year olds, but the audience for a picture book is changing, because picture books are changing. There are now picture books for all ages. Some are studied at senior secondary level and others are bought by adults for their art value. Picture books are available as individual titles in bookshops. Readers are marketed directly to schools and are not as readily available to the general book-buying public.

Marriage of Text and Illustration
A publisher once told me that picture books are a collaboration. Nothing new there. But I liked her definition. 40% words, 40% illustration, and 20 % was an "X-factor" – how the words and images worked together to produce the picture book. In a picture book, the illustrations have to work much harder than just illustrating the text. They need to have their own story as well. Look at your favorite picture books – there is a whole other story in the illustrations. It doesn’t contradict the text, rather extends and enriches it, to make something that can no longer be separated.

I think of writing picture books as being like writing poetry. There are so very few words and each one has to work hard to earn it’s place. It’s as much about the words that are left out, as about the words included. I like writing readers, meeting the challenge of writing an interesting story in a tight frame. Basically, I just like stories.


Thank you, Claire, for visiting my blog and sharing your experience with picture books and readers.

Here is a complete list of the dates so you can join Claire on her blog tour:

Monday 17August 2009
Dee White: http://tips4youngwriters.wordpress.com

Tuesday 18 August 2009
Rebecca Newman: http://www.soupblog.wordpress.com

Wednesday 19 August 2009
Mabel Kaplan: http://belka37.blogspot.com

Thursday 20 August 2009
Sandy Fussell: http://www.sandyfussell.blogspot.com

Friday 21 August 2009
Dale Harcombe: http://orangedale.livejournal.com/

Saturday 22 August 2009
Sally Murphy: http://sallymurphy.blogspot.com

Sunday 23 August 2009
Robyn Opie: http://robynopie.blogspot.com

Monday 24 August 2009
Sally Odgers: http://spinningearls.blogspot.com

If you'd like to find out more about
"How to Write a Great Picture Book", please visit
http://www.robynopie.com/howtowriteagreatpicturebook.html

I hope you come back soon. In the next few days, you'll be able to read an interview I did for Trish Puddle's blog
http://trish-mollygumnut.blogspot.com.

Happy writing!
Robyn Opie
http://www.robynopie.com

Blog Tour with Claire Saxby, author of the fabulous new picture book Sheep, Goat and the Creaking Gate

Welcome to Writing Children's Books with Robyn Opie. This week is the official release of Claire Saxby's new picture book Sheep, Goat and the Creaking Gate, illustrated by Judith Rossell and published by Windy Hollow books.

As part of the official release and launch, Claire is doing a blog tour. On Sunday, 23rd August, Claire will be visiting this blog to discuss the differences in writing picture books and school readers.

Thanks, Claire. I'm looking forward to your guest blog. I'm sure others are, too.

Here is a complete list of the blog tour dates so you can join Claire and learn more about Claire's experiences in writing children's books:


Monday 17August 2009

Dee White: http://tips4youngwriters.wordpress.com

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Rebecca Newman: http://www.soupblog.wordpress.com

Wednesday 19 August 2009

Mabel Kaplan: http://belka37.blogspot.com

Thursday 20 August 2009

Sandy Fussell: http://www.sandyfussell.blogspot.com

Friday 21 August 2009

Dale Harcombe: http://orangedale.livejournal.com/

Saturday 22 August 2009

Sally Murphy: http://sallymurphy.blogspot.com

Sunday 23 August 2009

Robyn Opie: http://robynopie.blogspot.com

Monday 24 August 2009

Sally Odgers: http://spinningearls.blogspot.com

I hope you come back soon.

Happy writing!

Robyn Opie

http://www.robynopie.com