was an opportunity to think back to that connection with nature, which was more vibrant as a kid. The summer holidays seemed to last forever. We didn’t go away on holiday so I was just running about wild, exploring things, collecting frogspawn.’ The poems share the emotion caught up in these experiences, and give a greater depth to the beautiful imagery involved.
I’m delighted to find out that there are a number of works on the horizon, ‘I’m doing another single poet collection with Otter-Barry. It’s another narrative-based collection, but going to a whole other level, I’m having a lot of fun with it. There’s also another couple of picturebooks with Fiona Lumbers; one is another Luna.’
something wonderful about getting those first pencil drafts; seeing that an illustrator has really read, connected and found depth within your words. Allison understands the gentleness of family, there’s such a sensitivity there that I could never have imagined visually because it was all felt for me through the words. Fiona captured that playfulness of the library and different ways of bringing that world to life. I would never have imagined the idea of things escaping from the books and entering into the library space, I thought that was so wonderful. Kate and I hadn’t met beforehand, but it felt like I’d walked her through the reasons behind the poems, almost like she’d glimpsed into my soul. They’ve all been such fantastic collaborations. I think the best picturebooks are a team effort; that’s where you get works of art.’
His latest work is the sumptuously illustrated, A Year of Nature Poems. ‘Since I was a kid, nature has been so important to me. Even though I grew up on a council estate in Roehampton, it’s a hugely green area, Richmond Park was on our doorstep. I spent a lot of time playing out, exploring, climbing trees, I’ve always had a real wonder with nature. I had a box of dead things under my bed (which I’d found, not killed!); I was fascinated. I’d get BBC Wildlife magazine sometimes; there was a thing where you sent off to get owl pellets and they’d show you how to dissect them and you’d send your findings; I’d do things like that when I was about 10. This collection
Central to Joe’s success is the truth that comes through all his work. Writing is to him about ‘Communication and connection. Trying to strip away falsehood and connect with what really matters. The things that matter to one person will matter to 100,000 when we get to the root of it. A lot of our decisions are made on fear or joy and it’s all the same fears and the same joys and the same reasoning. I think writing can cut through all of that, you can increase empathy by showing different worlds and show that we are all the same inside.’ If there’s a kind of writing we need right now, it’s exactly this.
A Year of Nature Poems, illus by Kelly Louise Judd, Wide Eyed Editions, 978-1786035820, £11.99 hbk
If All the World Were …, illus by Allison Colpoys, Lincoln Children’s Books, 978-1786030597, £12.99 hbk
Werewolf Club Rules, Lincoln Children’s Books, 978-1847804525, £7.99 pbk
Overheard in a Tower Block, illus by Kate Milner, Otter-Barry Books, 978-1910959589, £6.99 pbk Luna Loves Library Day, illus by Fiona Lumbers, Andersen Press, 978-1783445950, £6.99 pbk
Charlotte Hacking is Learning Programme Manager at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, a charity working to improve literacy in primary schools.
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