Photo © Tom Pilston This year’s winners of the Yoto Carnegie Medals: Joseph Coelho, Tia Fisher and Aaron, with host Manjeet Mann.
possible while retaining comprehension of what I’m aiming for. The more answers a reader can find themselves, the richer the experience they’ll have with the story; the more engaged they’ll be.”
Upcoming work for Aaron includes the publication of a winter solstice picture book, Winter Lights, which is out in autumn. He also talks about a graphic novel he has been working on for a decade, revealing: “Every time I sit down with it, I have this optimistic feeling, but then I’m like ‘NO! I need to keep doing wordless books’.” His follow up to The Tree and The River is The Last
Zookeeper, released in April and which he describes as a cross between Wall-E and Noah’s Ark. Set in a post- apocalyptic world, it is the (wordless) story of a giant robot that cares for animals trapped in a zoo following a cataclysmic event and widespread flooding. His desire to work with images over words will see him develop an as yet untitled story of a boy and his toy horse. He reveals: “It’s about a journey into the unknown. I was always a quite timid kid, and I wanted to explore the idea of how we learn to stretch our boundaries and try new things.” Aaron offers a final thought on the value of libraries to readers – whether reluctant or not – and the value they bring to allow everyone to connect with books in their own way.
“Books are wonderful, but they are expensive,” Aaron points out. “For so many families, a free library is the only way to have books in the home. There are so many inquisitive, curious minds out there that rely on libraries to find voices, stories, and knowledge outside of what they can find in their immediate environment. “Certainly, without libraries our culture is doomed to follow the interests of corporations. It’s a world that already feels like it’s arrived, but I like to think that libraries are our last defence against them!” PEN&INC
Autumn-Winter 2024 PEN&INC. 7
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