he snapped up Caldecott and Newbery winners like Rebecca Stead, who then went on to win the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for Andersen with Liar and Spy in 2013. Another of his clever international acquisitions, Way Home, even won the coveted Kate Greenaway Medal in 1994.But it is still a sore point for him, with all his passion for illustrated books that he has not won the Greenaway with a book created in-house. This despite a roll call of artists published by Andersen reading like a textbook on illustration: David McKee, Tony Ross, Satoshi Kitamura, Michael Foreman, Susan Varley, Emma Chichester Clark, Sir Quentin Blake, Chris Riddell, Ruth Brown and David Lucas to name but a very few!


Although supposed to have taken a step back since his 80th birthday, it is this passion which still brings him in for five days a week and his ambition for the future is still to find that perfect, ‘original and interesting’ picturebook text and then find the artist who will ‘create the magic’. Just like the time when Satoshi Kitamura, who at that point had not found a publisher in the UK interested in his quirky style, became angry at the lack of sales at his exhibition in Covent Garden, thereby reminding Klaus of a text from Hiawyn Oram sitting on his desk – the Mother Goose Award-winning Angry Arthur was born!


Perhaps the most celebrated and longstanding creative partnership that Klaus fostered and which we are all eternally grateful for, is that between Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross. Apparently Tony Ross is wont to claim that Jeanne is ‘more creative than Shakespeare, who pinched many of his plots while Jeanne’s are all original’. Klaus believes that she is our ‘most important’ and challenging picturebook author. Chicken Clicking a timely warning about internet safety, is leavened with her characteristic humour and does not frighten off those all-important gatekeepers – the teachers and librarians who Klaus credits for championing his books over the years. Indeed it is the closure of libraries around the world and the reduction in co-editions sold, that is his biggest worry for the future, particularly for his beloved hardback picturebook. But sales potential is not everything and he remains firmly committed to the notion that there are some books that ‘just have to be published’, indeed he intriguingly revealed he had turned down a bestselling picturebook because to him ‘it was just not good enough for Andersen’.


There are many plans afoot to celebrate this 40th anniversary year. Watch out in particular for the launch of an Elmer related competition in aid of National Libraries Day. Having won so many and firmly believing in their value, Klaus is a big fan of book prizes. We both mourned the demise of The Booktrust Early Years Award, The Mother Goose Award and The Kurt Maschler Award which highlighted the work of exciting new illustrators. Having launched the careers of many of today’s most distinguished illustrators, in their fortieth anniversary year this publisher and his list will continue to excite and challenge creators to strive for and readers to seek out, the very best imaginative literature.


Books mentioned


Struwwelpeter Heinrich Hoffman, Dover Children’s Books, 978-0486284699, £7.99


Two Can Toucan, David McKee, 978-1842700365, £5.99 pbk Elmer, David McKee, 978-1842707319, £6.99 pbk Not Now Bernard, David McKee, 978-1783442904, £6.99 pbk Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Tony Ross, 978-0862648077 I Want my Potty, Tony Ross, 978-0862649654, £5.99 hbk Junk, Melvin Burgess, 978-1783440627, £7.99 pbk, Cry of the Wolf, Melvin Burgess, 978-1849393751, £6.99 pbk The Bolds, Julian Clary and David Roberts, 978-1783443055, £6.99 pbk Badger’s Parting Gifts, Susan Varley, 978-1849395144, £6.99 pbk Letters to Klaus, 978-1849397506 The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, Chris van Allsburg, 978-1849392792, £6.99 pbk Liar and Spy, Rebecca Stead, 978-1849395427, £6.99 Way Home, Libby Hathorn and Gregory Rogers, 978-1842702321, £6.99 pbk


Angry Arthur, Hiawyn Oram and Satoshi Kitamura, 978- 1842707746, £6.99 pbk


Chicken Clicking, Jeanne Willis and Tony Rosss, 978-1783441617, £6.99 pbk


Formerly Learning Resources Manager at Coventry Schools Library Service, Joy Court is a consultant on reading and libraries, Chair of the CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenway Medals, and reviews editor of the School Librarian.


Books for Keeps No.216 January 2016 15


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