The Sleepy Ladybird illustrated by Caroline Bailey
After illustrating The Sleepy Ladybird, I was very keen to observe a young child reading the book. Picnic Publishing generously sent me a big pile of free samples. I admired the sleek colourful covers and although I had seen bits of the book through the various production stages, there is nothing like handling the end product: it just looked perfect and like a real book!
Shortly after, I visited my childhood friend in France and she read the story to her three-year-old, Zoé. Incredibly, she translated it into French in real time. Zoé listened very attentively, looked at the drawings, pointed at the characters and made a lot of comments. As soon as the story unfolded, she pointed out with triumph that Oliver the Ladybird had lied! I was shocked. I had been painting these illustrations for months and hadn’t even noticed: Did the ladybird lie? That’s what happens when your nose is too close to the drawing board! Once the story was over, Zoe immediately asked her mum to tell it again ‘Very quickly’. Of course, this could have been a trick not to go to bed but Hey! This was still a good sign. I was over the moon.
My friend Henri Renard, the author of The Sleepy Ladybird, told me about a 3-year-old boy named Kieron who particularly loved the drawing of Oliver the Ladybird asleep on Bobby the Labrador’s nose at the end. 
Kieron also made his grandmother Sally – who is not unconnected with Picnic’s distributors (!) – read and re-read it. Sally said what was fascinating was that for the first time ever, her grandson was listening to the story and checking out the pictures. He then insisted it be read again – and re-checked the pictures. Sally is wild about the book because she says children have no vocabulary but do have sophisticated minds, which children’s books do not exploit.
Meanwhile, her grandson said: ‘Oliver is bad boy. Bobby is good boy. Bobby and Oliver are friends. Oliver becomes good boy like me.’ (In a nutshell!)
Note re Market Research: ‘The Management’ would like me to explain that Picnic only exploits the children and grandchildren of its nicest friends and colleagues . . .
September 9th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Hi
YIp, that’s kids, they’re so switched on really. Do you know Robert Graves’ The Cool Web? It is a poem about exactly the stuff you’re writing about. They (kids, that is) know and understand things, they lack the words to say so. Graves reckons having the words, both dims that understanding and makes it bearable . . .
September 9th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Thanks Gisela, I’ve just read the poem, beautiful indeed, yes it must be frustrating for young children to be limited by vocabulary to express themselves. I think Robert Graves’ poem can be interpreted beyond children, as adults that are more articulate will find it easier to develop more sophisticated thoughts, we do think in words after all.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:59 am
Oh yes – adults lose the intensity of the child’s wordless experience and and gain reason and sanity. Not sure Graves feels that is a bargain, though.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I remember so well when I was a child, I thougth that adults could not understand children, they did not play any games, only had worries & serious topics to talk about and did not dream anymore! I made a promise to myself that I would not change, that I would keep this “child way of thinking” I felt much more exciting.
In the end, being an adult, I realize I could only keep a part of it… I still read children books, watch kids programms on TV, enjoy walking around in the toys sections of department stores and dream sometimes.
However, doing some drama lessons, I realize I lost my ability to invent funny stories, poetic tales.
Thank you Caroline, because you help me to keep this “child set of mind” which is so precious!
September 12th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Thanks Solene, very good comment – I think many adults still enjoy childish entertainment as I ve heard there were many many grown-ups without children going to the cinema to see Ratatouille. And what about South-Park, the Simpsons, Wallace & Gromit, Mangas, Go-karting, Paint-ball fights, Fun Rises, Eurodisney, Pink fairy outfits for Hen Nights, Doll collectors, Miniature cars collectors, robots, colourful stationary …..the list is endless…..all these are tapping into the children we once were, so we definitely have some of it left in us so have fun! keep going to the drama classes and feed your imagination it will all come back. (this is starting to sound like Peter Pan!)