Liz Pichon: “It Bugs Me When People Say It’s Not ‘Proper’ Reading If A Book Has Lots Of Pictures”
When it comes to illustration, Liz Pichon is keen for people to look at the bigger picture…
- by Liz Pichon
I do have memories of learning to read – like sitting with my mum, trying to sound out words from a book and being told to “break it down”every time I got stuck. I found that SO frustrating; I just wanted her to tell me what it was so I could get on with the story!
My strongest memory, though, has to be getting my first library card. I remember this amazing building, completely crammed with books, and being told we could choose five to take away. That seemed like a huge number, and the range of content was dizzying. I always went for the pop-up books, which were usually a bit shabby, but they were expensive to buy and my absolute favourites. I’ve still got some picture books from when I was five. One in particular – Brian Wildsmith’s representation of Aesop’s fable about the Lion and the Rat – is stunning. I was given it by my older sister for my birthday, and even back then I was struck by how beautiful and special it was. The way the text was laid out on the page, working with those distinctive illustrations; it felt like a book to be treasured.
My parents were avid readers, so there were always books in our house – I’d pick them up if I knew something about the story or the covers looked interesting. Artwork and the look and feel of a book has always been an important part of the reading experience for me; tiny fonts or great long wodges of text I found really tricky to read. I had a huge collection of different comics that I’d read over and over and again and then copy all the characters from them too.
It really bugs me when people say it’s not ‘proper’ reading if a book has too many pictures. I heard an ‘education tsar’ on TV the other day say that designing posters as part of a lesson is a waste of time. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve had to convey information to people visually on a webpage or through posters or postcards. Human beings have always shared stories through images; why wouldn’t it be a useful and helpful communication skill for children to learn about?
I never expected to write books at all. I trained as a graphic designer and worked for a record label doing album covers until I built up a portfolio and went freelance. I did loads of greetings cards, T-shirts and magazines then got commisioned to illustrate a few baby board books, which gave me the confidence to write my own children’s stories. My Big Brother Boris won a Smarties Silver prize, which was amazing. I look at that book now and can see it was like an early version of Tom Gates, which actually started out as a picture book idea first. I had to rewrite it a few times and the age range just kept going up; it wasn’t until I sat down with a real school exercise book, and imagined Tom writing about a terrible camping holiday, complete with doodles and ink blots on the pages, that I knew I had something that would work. My lovely agent asked if I’d heard of ‘Wimpy Kid’ my heart sank! But I think the popularity of Jeff Kinney’s books worked in my favour in the end aspublisherswerelookingforsomethingsimilar, though Tom Gates and Greg Heffley are very different characters and the voice and style aren’t the same either.
I love the fact that I can incorporate lots of different strands of creativity into my work – music, for example. I met my husband when I was working for the record label; he still works in music and worked on some brilliant tracks for all the different bands in the books, which fans can play and sing along with. I always put in lots of interactive “EXTRAS” for readers, like drawing on -shirts and making paper bangers. I love showing kids how to doodle at events, it’s especially great watching them realise that they CAN draw and seeing the results they get too.
It’s so hard for teachers right now as it feels like time for being creative is being squeezed out of lessons because of all the changes that are being made. I was thinking about the Olympic Games opening ceremony four years ago and how much of it was bursting with fashion, music, art, books – all the things we do so well in this country, historically. We’re known for being a creative nation. I’d love to see more creativity in all areas of learning – not less.
It’s one of the reasons I’m so thrilled that my books are read by kids with such a wide range of ages and abilities. Quite often I’m told it’s ‘reluctant readers’ – which is not something I ever purposely set out to have happen. I just want to write the best story I could and something I would have wanted to read at that age. I can’t think about how other people react to it – I’d go nuts if I did. But now I get emails every day from parents keen to tell me how much their ‘struggling readers’ enjoy Tom Gates. My own son didn’t learn to read or write until he was 11 and had a rotten time at mainstream school before being moved, so I can really empathise with what they are feeling. I’m SO unbelievably lucky to have found something that I love doing so much. I just want to keep writing and drawing books for as long as Judith Kerr has.
