reverse world bedrooms in Kevin). Again, the motivation for adding these is to provide a story time experience that grows with each reading of the book. Like any parent, Rob is familiar with the phase children go through of wanting a favourite book read over and over. Children love the familiarity of books they know and love to look for details: ‘I wanted to put in levels of details that you might not spot until the sixth or seventh time of reading it’. These details add different layers of meaning which make them interesting for older children or adults (particularly those adults who have to read them over and over again).


There are themes of friendship and hope throughout all Rob’s books but he thinks this is because these are really universal themes which are very relevant to young children’s lives. He really doesn’t set out to ‘preach’ or write stories with a moral but these kinds of themes seem to emerge. When he was creating Odd Dog Out he had an idea for a world entirely populated by sausage dogs but it was his daughter returning from school worried that she didn’t have the same lunchbox as her friends that made him think about a story where you didn’t need to be exactly like everyone else to fit in. This, like all the best stories, evolved into something more nuanced and Rob talks movingly about speaking with adults in Russia who felt that the rainbow scarf dog was an important and meaningful symbol in a country where children are taught not to be open about their sexuality or identity.


Unusually, and because of his experience as an Art Director, Rob also likes to put the text onto the page, to design the layout. ‘In magazines you are always laying things out to try to persuade people to read the article and it’s exactly the same with the book, laying out the pages so that they pull you in and then taking you on the journey, slowing you down or speeding you up with your reading.’ He has a great relationship with his Art Department and is always wary of treading on other people’s toes but he spent twenty years laying out pages so the thinking about this is an integral part of his process.


In all Rob’s books there are the main stories and then many background details some of which tell parallel stories (the monkey in Blown Away or the rabbit love story in GRRRRR!) some of which are entirely irrelevant (the number 72 – the year of Rob’s birth – appears in every book) and some which provide us with jokes, colour or interest (the hidden alphabet in Show and Tell, the


Kevin was his first book which didn’t have a cast of animal characters. Based on his daughter’s actual imaginary friend, to whom the book is dedicated, this book was actually one of his earliest ideas. And now in Show and Tell he has created a cast of children – the very eccentric and rather wonderful Class 2L. Here, he has also carefully constructed a class of children which really reflects their differences and includes children with a range of backgrounds, as you would find in any inner-city classroom. He says: ‘I was reflecting my own children’s class at school. I love that my own children’s classes are very accepting of difference and diversity – and there are all these children in that class – so this is a reflection of what my life, and their life is like. It is very important for everybody to be able to see themselves somewhere in a children’s book’. He has taken a similar view of his work as the World Book Day official illustrator and as part of this role was instrumental in creating the Share a Story bookmarks where he was determined that there would be at least one bookmark from the range that would speak to every reader, whatever their tastes and interests.


Always busy, Rob is currently working on his next picture book, The Day I Lost My Human, as well as writing a new (yet to be announced) middle-grade fiction series and continuing with his famous #PackedLunchPostIts, at least until his youngest daughter leaves Year 6. He believes his is the best job in the world and obviously revels in the creativity of it all. Does he wonder why he didn’t do this earlier? ‘I don’t think I could have done it before I had children. I know now what they like, and how to talk to them’. It is this love of reading a story that shapes his work: ‘Sharing a story with someone is a truly magical moment’.


Books mentioned, all by Rob Biddulph, all published by HarperCollins Children’s Books: Blown Away, 978-0007593828, £6.99 pbk GRRRRR!, 978-0007594139, £6.99 pbk Kevin, 978-0008207427, £6.99 pbk Odd Dog Out, 978-0008184780, £6.99 pbk Show and Tell, 978-0008317911, £12.99 hbk


Louise Johns-Shepherd is chief executive of CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education)


Books for Keeps No.239 November 2019 9


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34