“Charlie, stop fidgeting, take your feet off the seat and sit properly.”
“But I can’t, I can’t. I can’t put them down there. I can’t
put my feet down there.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Because they’re waiting down there . . .”
“Waiting down there? Who’s waiting down there?”
“The wiggly woos. The wiggly woos are waiting down
there to tickle my toes.”
And with that, what had started as a mundane car journey to the supermarket was brought to an abrupt end as the car screeched to a halt, turned round and headed straight home . . .
. . . And the tale of Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Big Adventure was born.
Sir Charlie Stinky Socks, by Kristina Stephenson, is a tale of a “boy like no other”, a mini Don Quixote dressed in his knight’s regalia, armed with his sword of honour and courage and accompanied by his faithful grey mare and pet cat, Envelope. Charlie conquers fears whilst encountering terrible beasties, wily witches, and long green dragons, fortified by his pack of sandwiches and bottle of water he takes along for the adventure and it all ends, as all good stories should, in a big party.
But how did this whole adventure come about?
During a career as a theatre and set designer followed by a stint in children’s television, Kristina Stephenson arrived at a crossroads in her professional life whilst working on Teletubbies. When she became pregnant with her first child she wanted to do something where she could also be with her baby. Discussing with her husband what her ultimate job would be, Kristina knew she wanted to be a book illustrator. So, taking a gigantic leap of faith, and with no formal illustration training, she approached an agent with her work, was snapped up immediately and spent the next 9 years illustrating books.
“It seems to have touched people and grabbed their imagination. I think a lot of it is because there has been so much input from my children. I worked on it with them and it was for them”
Whilst illustrating other people’s books was a fantastic learning experience, not having the freedom to draw dragons, monsters and other creations of her imagination that she had grown up dreaming about, Kristina wanted to have a go at writing and illustrating her very own children’s book. The only problem was where to start with a storyline . . . until the episode in the car set her imagination into overdrive – and the rest came out of her head!
Children’s involvement
As Kristina was writing the story, she would tell the story to her two children at night, adding characters in as they went along. As the story evolves, the traditional, rip-roaring adventure, where fears are overcome and beasts are tamed, is turned on its head with an added element of surprise.
Kristina explains how she built the story up to a climax: the finding of a tall, tall tower in the middle of the deep, dark forest, with winding stairs going up and up to a little wooden door right at the top and behind that a . . . ? “I suddenly realised that I had absolutely no idea what the ending was.” So she turned to her daughter for help who responded: “A princess, of course!” as if she was stating the obvious.
Stories should be read aloud over and over again
Kristina puts a lot of the success of her first book down to this sort of involvement by her children and they were certainly one of the main reasons behind her ambition. Kristina explains that she wanted to produce a book, not specifically for boys but: “a book to appeal to boys and hold their attention.” Rather than aiming at the younger audience, she really believed that children aged between 5 and 7, the age at which most boys naturally want to be doing anything but reading, would enjoy such a tale.
The art of story-telling
So, what is so different about the book? “Writing a wordy picture book for this age group is quite unusual. In the UK, picture books are whipped away from children far too soon and they quickly become text heavy and illustrated in black and white.” Pictures are central to the story telling process: “Stories should be read aloud over and over again.” Kristina’s stories always start as “told” stories and the power of the spoken word was no better experienced than in a workshop held recently by one of Kristina’s friends for children with severely impaired sight: “The children latched onto the story immediately. This is where words really mean something.”
Children should be encouraged to tell their stories, relate their crazy dreams and share the irrational and fantastical workings of their imaginations.
Kristina reads with her children most evenings and finds it the perfect end to the day, believing that you can make time to read in spite of long days and exhaustion.
The exercise of telling stories, creating voices of the characters, dad reading too to hear the different tones of voice and intonation, making up stories as you go along, filling in gaps, playing games of consequences is all great fun – and not just at bedtime: “We try to have supper together every night and when Charlie was first learning to read we would pass around Charlie’s book and all read a page round the table, creating our characters and voices. It really did wonders for his reading.”
The creative process doesn’t just happen; inspiration doesn’t just strike once you’ve dropped the kids off at school. Ideas usually come to me as I’m cooking dinner or helping with homework
The ultimate dream job?
This all sounds like the ultimate dream job to those sitting in offices day after day but when friends say to Kristina how fortunate she is to have such “lovely job”, she knows that they only see the half of it. The story took six months to write and it was really very hard work: “The creative process doesn’t just happen; inspiration doesn’t just strike once you’ve dropped the kids off at school. Ideas usually come to me as I’m cooking dinner or helping with homework. I have to think – “hold that thought” – give the children my full attention and then dash to my desk as soon as they are in bed.”
The work can be long and lonely but Radio 4 becomes her lifeline: “The discipline is paramount so getting away from the house and taking the children to school each morning is extremely important.” Before she leaves, all signs of children, home and domesticity have to be cleared away so that on her return, the house becomes the office and her thoughts can be focused. At the end of the day, she doesn’t have the transition that a lot of people have in the time from leaving work and their work persona at the office and she often finds herself going to bed at 3am and having to be up again at 6 to get the children ready.
Free minds
A “free mind” is the key for Kristina: “Children don’t often tell stories anymore. In an increasingly competitive environment, they are afraid to take a risk and tell a story for fear of criticism.” So she encourages children to tell their stories, relate their crazy dreams and share the irrational and fantastical workings of their imaginations.”
A story of success
Since its launch in October of last year, the book has done extremely well. It has been shortlisted for the Red House Children’s Book Award 2008 (voted for entirely by children) and nominated for the ‘Read it Again’ Cambridgeshire Children’s Picture Book Award, is regularly a favourite in Waterstones’ top reads, and was also listed in the Guardian’s top 50 books of the year.
Her sequel, Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Frightful Night, published this October, starts where the first book left off and turns fears of the dark on their head as Sir Charlie tackles those things that go bump in the night . . . Are they really all that bad?
Asked why the first book has been so successful, Kristina wonders: “I’m not sure why it has been so successful. It seems to have touched people and grabbed their imagination. I think a lot of it is because there has been so much input from my children. I worked on it with them and it was for them.”
LINKS
Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Big Adventure, published October 2007, Egmont Press Hardback ISBN 978 1 4052 2802 Paperback ISBN 978 4052 2803
Sir Charlie Stinky Socks and the Really Frightful Night, out in October 2008, available for pre-order from www.amazon.co.uk