July 19th, 2024 Silence Broken!

Tan-tan-tara! She lives!

Sorry to have been so silent forso long. Mortifying. It’s the longest time between posts I’ve ever been guilty of. I’m knuckling down to the task right now in the unlikely event that you’ve been wondering if I were ill or dead. (I mean, who reads websites these days? But just in case…) Anyway, I’m neither ill nor dead, just slacker than usual about my website, and busy with real life and other important happenings.

The best news for me—and Judy Horacek, and it’s literally hot on the press as I type, is that our new book, Meerkat Mayhem, which has taken many years to evolve, is now done. It’s at the printers at last. The pictures are wildly funny. Only Judy could have pulled them off. I hope my words match her artistic hysteria. Publication in November. So long to wait. I’m counting the sleeps.

Back to the present. 2024 happens to be anniversary heaven. The noisiest of those anniversaries so far this year, and it’s on-going, has been the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Where is the Green Sheep? Exciting times, considering last year was the thrilling 40th anniversary of Possum Magic, illustrated by Julie Vivas.

Judy Horacek, the sensational illustrator (of Green Sheep, in this case) and I have been busy with media appearances, alerting the world to the longevity of this very simple book. It’s been given a gold cover for this auspicious year:

Much to the delight of my own grown up family, for heaven’s sake, a sticker book of Green Sheep has been added to the celebrations:

And soon a crinkly cloth book of Green Sheep is being released for babies and toddlers. Hurrah!

Earlier, when I mentioned that Green Sheep was a simple book, I wrote ‘simple’ with my tongue in my cheek. People who know nothing about writing a book might look at Green Sheep and think: ‘I could do that.’ My reply is: ‘Give it a go!’ And then understand why it took two intelligent women working together for eleven months to create a ‘simple’ book of 190 words, 188 of which were —and are —only one syllable: ‘quietly’ has three syllables and ‘asleep’ has two. The rest have one. The rhyme scheme is ABCB, which means the second and fourth lines have to rhyme. But the first two lines: AB, are pairs of like things, and the second two two lines are another, different pair of like things. Here’s an example of that tight set-up to show how the connections work and where the rhymes have to be:

Here is the sun sheep.

And here is the rain sheep.

Here is the car sheep

and here is the train sheep.

So! Three cheers for the children’s authors and illustrators you adore.  ‘Simple’ is never that simple. We work hard to keep children happy.

It’s also the 40th anniversary of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (note Wilfrid, not Wilfred), illustrated by Julie Vivas, with a special celebratory edition coming out in September. Have I ever written a better book? Not sure. The hairs on my arms stood up when I’d finished it. Even now, I have a catch in my throat when I read the last page aloud. The title, in case you didn’t know already, was my dad’s full name. He had re-trained as a librarian at the age of 66 so he loved, loved, loved it: he had his very own ISBN number! But many years later, by heart-breaking chance, he died of Alzheimer’s, which is the theme of the story of Wilfrid.

Yet another book, Sleepy Bears, illustrated by Kerry Argent, will have its own celebratory edition later this year: 35 years. So affirming. I used to whisper the last verse by heart in the dark to my grandson when I was putting him to bed. It calmed both of us:

Sleep my sweetheart, sleep my bear,

Your cradle swings in the evening air.

Moonbeams touch your precious face

And stars float by with gentle grace.

Sleep my sweetheart, have no fear:

Sleep my darling, I am here.

I’m very grateful for these anniversaries given that the lifespan of most books for children is a couple of years.

At this point, it looks as if 2025 will be pretty boring in comparison to 2024, unless something spectacular and unexpected happens. However, 2026 should be better as it will be the 80th anniversary of Mem Fox, so to speak.

At the moment I’m working on three books at once. I’ve never done that before. (One is already contracted.) It’s both relaxing and confusing. When I get stuck with one, I move to another, and then go back and check on the first and probably cut most of it, and then I go to the third book and play with that for a few days until it gets too hard, and then I move back to the first one, and so on. Sheer madness, really. I notice I’ve used the lovely word ‘hubbub’ in two of the three books, so one of them will have to go. But which word will I choose instead?  ‘Noise’ has only one syllable, and ‘commotion’ has three, whereas I need a two-syllable word, so it’s back to Roget’s Thesaurus yet again. You understand, do you not?— that writing a picture book is never plain sailing. It’s a nightmare. Word-and-syllable choice is everything. The plot is minor, and often there’s no real ‘plot’ anyway.

Other lovely things have happened since I last wrote, some of which I’m sure I’ve forgotten, forgive me, because I’ve been so recalcitrant about keeping to up to date. I have a busy family life going on in the background, which never stops. Any excuse…

I won’t forget the thrilling two days I had with the South Australian Premier’s Reading Challenge in four schools in two cities to the north of South Australia: Whyalla and Port Augusta. In each case the entire school came to my presentation, which was different each time, according to the vibe. All my old teaching skills had to be re-born, fast, faced as I was with over 300 children on each occasion, aged between 5 and 12. Keeping the age groups with me, all quiet and agog, was quite something. I found it daunting, I have to confess, but it was so good for me to be challenged like that, and I hope as rewarding as possible for the children, all of whom were delightful and respectful. I loved it. I slept particularly well each night— I mean, I died! I’m not 38 any more.

Below, pictures from the schools I visited: magic children in magic hats, divine teachers in wonderful T-shirts, and cute kids in front of an amazing ‘Welcome Mem Fox’ wall, which isn’t very clear but was spectacular on the day. Thank you to everyone!