Great Storytelling Allows Children to Love any Text – Even Shakespeare
Pamela Butchart was 33 before she learnt to love Shakespeare – but with great storytelling, she reckons there’s no need for children to wait nearly that long…
If it weren’t for Judith Kerr, I’m not sure I’d be doing what I’m lucky enough to do today – writing stories for children. Her books are the first I can remember having, and loving; before I could even read. Those magical illustrations fascinated me, and I’d spend ages looking at them, filling in gaps in the story.
Later, when I’d learnt to decipher words for myself, I loved series books; I still do, in fact. It’s so great to get to the end of a story, then realise that you don’t have to say, ‘goodbye’; that there’s another one waiting for you.
I’ll read just about any genre, as long as the characters are strong. That’s always been hugely important to me, and I think you can tell that when you read books that I’ve written; it’s always the characters that stand out.
The Secret Seven was one of the first series that got me properly hooked – and to be able to have written two, brand new stories about those junior detectives and Scamper the dog is like a dream come true!
Dull, dry and dead
Although I read constantly throughout primary school, there was a period not long after I started high school when I stopped almost completely. I enjoyed fact books for a while, but couldn’t find many that were really good – and then, I don’t know, I suppose other things took over in my life.
The novels we had to read, for English, didn’t inspire me – I wasn’t intimidated by challenging texts, but the ones we were given just weren’t to my taste.
And then, of course, there was Shakespeare…
We had to read The Merchant of Venice. I hated everything about that title – I didn’t even know what a ‘merchant’ was, for a start, and frankly, having it explained to to me didn’t make the play seem any more appealing.
It didn’t help, either, that the teacher (and I can say this very firmly, being a teacher myself) made absolutely no attempt to make the text interesting, or come to life. The characters and story stayed resolutely on the page, dull, dry and dead.
I rote learnt what I needed to in order to get the grade I wanted in the final exam, but I was left convinced that I couldn’t understand Shakespeare, and that I definitely didn’t like him.
So, when the BBC got in touch with me three years ago, asking if I’d like to rewrite a Shakespeare play for children, I was dumbfounded. In fact, I thought it must be a mistake; that they hadn’t read my books, and thought I was someone else.
But no, it turned out that they did know my work, and it really was me they wanted. After I’d got over my initial shock, I decided that it was a challenge I’d like to take on. I chose to tackle Macbeth, but instead of going straight to the original text, I read books about it, written for primary and secondary pupils.
The character connection
And oh my word; what incredible characters I found! Vibrant, complicated, intriguing characters, firing my imagination and making me actually want to read the play itself! Why had no one told me about this side of Shakespeare at school?
I ended up retelling Macbeth using the voice of Izzy, the 8-year-old narrator of my series of books set in a primary school that starts with Baby Aliens Got My Teacher, and includes the Blue Peter Book Award winning The Spy Who loved School Dinners.
It was recorded for the BBC, read by Shirley Henderson (who plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films), and honestly, I think it’s one of the best projects I’ve ever been part of.
I enjoyed it so much, in fact, that when my publisher, Nosy Crow, suggested I retell some more of Shakespeare’s stories, I leapt at the chance, giving Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet the Izzy treatment.
The resulting tales, along with Macbeth, were published together in a book called To Wee or Not to Wee (I couldn’t believe how indecisive Hamlet was!), and it’s a huge thrill for me when I hear that primary schools are using it to introduce pupils to Shakespeare.
That’s how it should be done, I’m sure – getting children to meet and fall in love with the characters, and become excited about the plots, so that when they finally tackle the original text, they are already ready to engage with it, and aren’t put off in the way that I was.
At the age of 33, the BBC was able to change my mind about Shakespeare; and now, if I only ever had one book published, I’d want it to be To Wee or Not to Wee – it’s one of my proudest achievements.
Pamela Butchart will be speaking at Cheltenham Literature Festival (5-14 October 2018).
