2009 Royal Mail Award Early Years Nominees

1. Can you tell us a little about your book?

Lynne Rickards: Pink is the story of a little penguin who wakes up one morning to discover he's turned pink overnight!  Since Patrick is a boy penguin, this is not good news.  The doctor can't help him, and he gets teased at school, so finally he decides to swim to Africa where there are other pink birds called flamingos.  Patrick tries hard to fit in, but he can't do anything that flamingos do.  He decides to swim home again, and he gets a hero's welcome!  Everyone is delighted to have him back, and they're all very impressed by his adventures.  The fact that he is pink has been long forgotten, and Patrick decides being different is okay after all.

Julia Donaldson: Stick Man lives in the Family Tree. With his stick lady love and their stick children three.
But what happens when a dog thinks he's just an ordinary stick? The book takes poor misunderstood Stick Man through the seasons and further and further away from his family  . . . but it does have a happy ending.

John Fardell: Manfred the Baddie is the baddest baddie of all. He kidnaps inventors and makes them build him diabolical machines with which he carries out daring and extravagant robberies, assisted by his gang of henchmen. He has a lot of fun being bad, but one day he falls ill and realises that nobody likes him, and is forced to consider changing his ways.

2. What is your favourite part of your story?

Lynne: When I'm reading the story to children, my favourite bit is when Patrick says, "This is terrible!  What will all my friends say?  Whoever heard of a pink penguin?"  The other thing I love is how Patrick points out to his friends that although flamingos are beautiful, they can't swim underwater or slide on their tummies like penguins can.  I always feel very sorry for flamingos then – compared to penguins, they don't have any fun!

Julia: I really like the page where Stick Man gets made into a snowman's arm, because Axel Scheffler, the illustrator, conjures the wintry scene so vividy that you could just step inside the picture.

John: It's hard to pick one bit. There's a kidnap scene at the beginning in comic strip form which I like. I love comic strips. And the big double-page robbery scenes were a lot of fun to think up and draw. And there's also a wee naughty twist at the end which I'm quite pleased with.
                                                                                                                                

3. How does it feel to be nominated for the Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children’s Books?

Lynne:  I was astonished to hear that Pink had been nominated for the Royal Mail Awards, and feel very honoured to be in such prestigious company!  Whether or not Pink wins, I am very grateful to all the judges who chose it for the shortlist.  As a Canadian by birth, I am "different" like Patrick, but this nomination makes me feel very much that I belong in Scotland!

Julia: The awards are terrific because they get so many children excited about books.

John: It feels lovely. As always, it's a very high quality shortlist - in all categories - and it's a real honour to be included. And it's great to be part of an award process that gets so many children involved in the excitement of books.

4. What’s it like to see your books in bookshops and on posters and websites?                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Lynne: It's always a thrill to see my book in the shops, and sometimes when I do an event and they print posters, I ask if I can keep one!  In my office I have a big, tall orange poster that says, "Super Saturday Story Time with Lynne Rickards."  It always gives me a boost when I sit down to work!

Julia: That kind of publicity is always extremely welcome, because normally it's quite hard (and often expensive!)  to get much public notice taken of children's books.

John: It's great. Like most authors and illustrators, I spent quite a long time trying to get my book ideas published before getting lucky and achieving that, so the thrill of seeing your own books in shops - in my case with my own artwork and lettering on the front - never completely wears off, even when you've had a few published.