Going back to the source by Abie Longstaff

When my children were little they were an endless source of ideas for picture books.

They had great words for things - we still say 'starvint' instead of 'starving' to this day after my daughter used to cry out "I'm starvint!" My son made up fantastic names for his soldiers like 'Massimao' (who was one of his top colonels).

They loved being read to





even at a very young age:

They also wrote their own stories like this fantastic one by my son aged 3: 

My Tigers

When my dog dies I will not be sad.

This is because that's when I will be getting my baby tigers.

I will get 100 baby tigers. I will get them from a tiger den.

The mummy tiger will say: "Go with that nice family!" or maybe the daddy tiger will say it. I don't know yet.

When they are first born the tigers will sleep in my sister's bed. Then when they are older they will sleep in my bed.

When they are big they will have to be good and not growl or bite people.

If they bite someone I will give them one warning and if they do it again…

…I will hoover them up.

They were very useful and many of my picture books came out of games we used to play together, like

 

But now my two are in secondary school. They still love picture books (especially the longer ones, like Ardizzone's wonderful 'Tim all Alone') but they are a little too old to be of useful inspiration.

Luckily, this Christmas I spent a week with my sister's three children, who are both incredibly cute and incredibly pesky; a perfect source of inspiration.

We read books (sometimes over and over. The little niece had a particular obsession with the Ahlbergs' Bye Bye Baby).

We made up a crazy story about a butterfly who hated the rain and needed an umbrella.

And a crocodile who snapped at Father Christmas while he was delivering presents.

And a playdough baby whose arm kept falling off.

There were rows about naptime, dummies, food, using the potty, whose toy belonged to whom.

Life with small children all came flooding back to me (particularly how bleeding hard it is - my sister does well to keep even halfway sane with those three around!)

There were plenty of cuddles during the day. And alcohol once they had gone to bed.

It was wonderful - and very inspiring!

Then my parents told me a fantastic story about their friends, who took out an old chimney breast and discovered behind it a small cloth bag full of ancient Spanish doubloons. Now that's a good plot :) 

Abie x

Look out for my new series, The Magic Potions Shop, coming this July for 5-7 year olds :)