Metaphrog: Scottish Children's Book Awards Highly Commended

Earlier this year Louis - Night Salad, a brilliant graphic novel by Metaphrog, was put forward for consideration for this year's Scottish Children's Book Awards. Although it didn't quite make it to the final shortlist the judging panel were keen that it be Highly Commended. They recommend you all check it out! We asked Metaphrog to tell us more about the book.

Louis – Night Salad took shape very gradually over a five year period. Originally we had planned to base the book on a short comic story called Louis – The Round the World Rug Race that had been accepted for the SPX 2003 Sequential Art Travelogue anthology. Of all the short stories we have made for different publishers over the years, this one we had particularly enjoyed working on. Part of the fun had been using literary allusions (to Around the World in Eighty Days, for example) and also contrasting dream with reality.

We realise that when we create something, our own lives can affect the process to a large extent.  So when John’s father died as we were beginning working on the book it had a dramatic impact and in many ways influenced the story. But, Louis – Night Salad isn’t just a big book about death for children, it’s for adults too, and it isn’t only about dealing with grief, bereavement and bewilderment. More than anything else, Louis – Night Salad is a book about books and the power that stories have to transport and even transform their reader.

With Louis – Night Salad our inspiration was also the thought of creating a universe with words and images in pages designed for happily spending time in. The pictures serve to tell the story as much as the words and utilising the language of both words and images we hoped to create something harmonious.  And, once again we made allusion to literary classics, for example, the caterpillar and the changes of scale suggest both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and also Gulliver’s Travels.

As well as books that readers are familiar with, another book inspired the story, and that is the diary kept by John’s father when he spent time in Antarctica in the 1950s on an Ordinance Survey expedition. The romantic idea of exploring and of adventure has always informed our work to some extent and here we were able to weave something more personal into the narrative.

Sandra found inspiration for the fantastic cities and underground worlds Louis explores, in both Persian art and also literature from her childhood in France such as Contes Persans and Fantômette a series she had read and loved.

The idea of making a simple story suitable for all-ages really appealed to us and although different readers will naturally experience the book uniquely, ultimately we hope they will find it uplifting.

Find out more about the work of Metaphrog on their website!

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Faber and Faber and The Guardian are looking for 13 to 16 year olds to design a new cover for William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Deadline 20th January 2012.