I have worked as a library outreach specialist with children under 5 for more than 8 years now, introducing the very young to the magic of stories and rhymes, in libraries, nurseries and children's centres... so I was thrilled to be asked to join the book selection panel for Bookstart, the national book gifting scheme. With other professionals who all work in some way with children and books, I sat around a table for 5 hours today looking at and discussing literally hundreds of picture books, old and new, and picking out the very select few that we believe should be given free to the nation's children! A big responsibility, but also a unique and very rewarding experience.
I have been writing a lot about kids' books again lately - in recent issues of Nursery World, Practical Preschool, and EYE. Now the next step for me is to try to get a picture book text of my own accepted by a mainstream publisher, and I have a very short appointment booked with just such a publisher at the London Book Fair in April. I think I know what works when it comes to picture books, and I have written a great little rhythmic, rhyming, read-aloud story, but I am no artist, so I am very reliant on a publisher seeing the potential in my idea and words and being able to imagine the same action-packed and endearing pictures that I see in my head when I read the story, then finding the perfect illustrator to bring it all to life on the page. A big ask, but here's hoping....
