“Preschool Entertainment”
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Author and mom Magdalena Ball's reviews of books and other products for preschoolers.
Interview with children's book author and illustrator John Burningham
© 2005 by Magdalena Ball
Courtesy of the Family-Content Syndicate
Distinguished author and illustrator (twice winner of the Kate Greenaway Award) John Burningham talks about the upcoming animated series of his books by producer Yoram Gross, his latest children's book The Magic Bed, the similarities between chlidren and adults, his favourite illustrator, the difficulty of writing and illustrating, and more.
Magdalena Ball: Tell me about your work with Yoram Gross. How did that come about? John Burningham: I worked with Yoram an awful long time ago on a biblical film in Tel Aviv in Israel, and I got in touch with him about 18 months ago because I was doing a book about childhood and remembered some of the stories he told me about his childhood.
We got in touch again and he insisted I come to Australia as he wanted to do some of my stories. They’re quite simple animations of a number of my books; about 15 or so. It will be a little series. Some years ago I did a book called Aldo, featuring a rabbit.
Aldo is going to be the storytelling/narrator. It should be very interesting because it isn‘t like normal animation. It‘s much more like somebody reading a story.
MB: How much control do you have?
JB: I’ve worked over the years in animation and basically you have to decide that somebody is going to take care with your work. You have to trust them.
MB: This will be your third film. Do you find the process of creating animated films very different from that of creating a book?
JB: It is different but then I don’t actually work on them now. It’s quite a separate art. All I do is to pass pass my opinion on their opinion. I’ll won’t be doing any extra drawing. In some cases you have to extend the story a little and I do provide advice on that.
MB: Tell me about The Magic Bed.
JB: The Magic Bed is every child’s fantasy. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a bed could fly. Like most of my books, it’s bringing an idea out that I’ve had for, often, years that circulate and I cannot solve. I’ve always got 4 or 5 ideas in my head that won’t see the light of day until I come up with a solution. And so I’m not thinking about anything other than getting these out.
MB: Do you have an “ideal reader” in mind when you create a book?
JB: No, I don’t. People often put this demarcation between adults and children, but there aren‘t that many differences between them. Children aren’t less intelligent than adults. They‘re just less experienced. Also, adults have to look at these books and read these stories night after night and so I don’t want to produce any substandard material which isn’t going to appeal to the adult reader.
MB: Are any of your books personal favourites?
JB: It is difficult for me to choose one whole book. If we sat down together and went through all of my books, I would be able to point out specific drawings that I liked, or specific moments. There are many such moments, but I wouldn’t like to choose a book over the others.
MB: Do you have a favourite book by another author/illustrator?
JB: I’ve always liked Cecil Aldeon. He was a 19th century artist, whose work was to dogs what [George] Stubbs was to horses. His drawings of dogs were the best ever. I liked his work very much.
MB: At what point did you know that writing/illustrating children’s books would be your vocation?
JB: I don’t know if there ever was a point that I knew. It just crept up on me over the years. I think the penny has finally dropped. I shall continue to do it as long as I don’t get bored with it, and as long as I feel I have something worthwhile to contribute.
MB: Have you ever had a book which you felt that children didn’t get or had difficulty with?
JB: Not really. Writing is always difficult for me, and I often find that I cannot solve the problem which I’m working on. The one I’m about to start now I didn’t think I could solve and carried it about for some time. I think I have now, but you never know. There is nothing I‘ve ever dropped or didn‘t do. I still have plenty of problems circulating in my head, and I live in hope of solving those one day.
MB: Some of your books, like Granpa, are actually quite sad (in a warm way). Did you worry that it might upset children? Or do you think things like death need to be dealt with?
JB: These things are all part of life. I’ll tell you an interesting scenario relating to Granpa. It was made into a very good animated film. I attended its opening at the Curson cinema in London. They bussed in classloads of kids and I was sitting with a row of adults. There were lot of kids in the front, and when the film got to that point with the empty chair, some little boys shouted out “He’s dead isn’t he!”. The adults who were sitting with me were overcome and quite upset, but the children took it in their stride. Children still think about these things even if adults don’t talk about it with them.
JB: What comes first for you, the visuals or the words?
MB: Despair comes first! It is always difficult. The early stages are particularly hard. I can’t draw and I can’t write. It is irrelevant that I’ve written 45 books, it is always hard at first. You take a bricklayer--which is a marvellous skill, but once you’ve learnt it, you can always do it. The creative process isn’t like that. You have to start from scratch every time, constantly working at it, and I’m always worried I might fail. I tend to think in visuals and words simultaneously.
MB: You’ve been working for many years. Have you noticed any major changes in your audience’s expectations? (the impact of technology for example).
JB: I don’t know the answer to that. Children these days are under enormous pressure to perform and of course the availability of everything enormous. To have something which is a treat a tall order. It used to be that a birthday party was a treat because children had the kind of food they didn‘t normally get, but nowadays they eat those things every day. These changes don’t affect the types of books I write though and I really don’t consider them as a writer.
MB: Do you have any special writing/illustrator goals for the future (what would you just love to do)?
JB: Well I’m superstitious about talking too much about the things for fear that you might cause them not to occur. But of course there are lots of things. I’m going to be doing a full set of my works which is very exciting for me. I’m also planning to do a large exhibition of my work. And of course there is another book coming out, but you’ll just have to watch and wait to see what happens next.
Magdalena Ball runs Preschool Entertainment, The Compulsive Reader, and is the author of two books, The Literary Lunch: Recipes for a Hungry Mind, and The Art of Assessment: How to Review Anything. Her fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and essays have appeared in a wide range of on-line and print publications.
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