Inger Brown on her new Bobbling stories

Illustrator Inger Brown has released 2 new Bobbling stories in her children's book series. The first book "The Bobbling and the Dragon" is a sweat adventure where he has to save his new friend Woo the Whippet from the terrible dragon. The second story is ready for Christmas where The Bobbling moves into a longer adventure of a chapter book. He needs to help Rudolf the reindeer find Santa who is lost in the enchanted forest. The Bobbling has had a huge over hall with a new permanent character introduced and lively, fun illustrations.

While you are creating your stories, especially "Bobbling stories", what are your key messages which you want to pass along to children?

I try not to be too preachy in my picture books no one wants to be preached at especially at bedtime. With my picture books I try to focus on a good, funny, light storyline that children can laugh at and enjoy. The one running theme though with The Bobbling is he is always ready to help others, he always wants to help a lending hand when someone is stuck in a sticky situation.

Why did you choose to write about 'friendship'?

"The Bobbling and The Dragon" I guess does have a small friendship theme, Bobbling is lonely. This was partly because I knew I wanted to do longer books and to achieve something that would be good he would need more characters to bound off. My books always have visiting characters but I wanted someone fun, silly, cute that could stay.

How is writing a chapter book different in your personal opinion as an illustrator?

Doing the chapter book "The Bobbling's Christmas Nutcracker" was completely different for me this time around. The thing I found really difficult was I changed the size/ format of the book. I was working on a different shape and this really threw me at the begging. You don't realise that something like that can have a huge impact but it took me out of my comfort zone. I was working previously on A3 I had a vast amount of space to express myself and all of a sudden I was working on this small A4 portrait size and it felt very constraining. I had to keep reminding myself that the end result was going to look, I think, better. 

 The other thing is that a chapter book is longer. I had a lot of ways in which I could go with it. I could have huge amounts of writing with small black and white pictures. But instead I thought back to what I liked as a child. I am dyslexic and reading was so very hard as a child that I always picked up the book with the most amounts of pictures, hoping I could get away without actually having to read it. That has always stuck in my mind so I figured I would try and bridge the gap for kids, make it longer, more words but not feel that way. I think it have achieve that here in "The Bobbling's Christmas Nutcracker", I have made it heavily illustrated.

In your childhood, what kind of stories or books did you read? Which is the most memorable author or book(s)?

As I said as a kid I was badly dyslexic but having said that I did like picture books even then. I liked them because of the pictures, even looking at the pictures you can still feel like you are being taken somewhere else. Like most people the Dr Seuss books were just a blast, he was completely talented, he is just on a different level to everyone else out there. The illustrations are so strong as well and it has the golden key, its timeless. Another one that is a personal favourite is the "what-a-mess" series, not well known but they are beautifully illustrated!

What kind of challenges did you encounter as you created a new character using fun and lively illustrations?

In "The Bobbling and The Dragon" I have introduced a new permanent character called "Woo the Whippet". She is based on my whippet who passed away just before putting that book together so it was a little cathartic as well producing this book. When she was around I tried drawing her a dozen times and I couldn't get it right. I think I felt I couldn't do her justice, or it wasn't like what I was seeing in front of me. Then once she was gone it just happened, the pencil clicked and I made the her into a character. Sometimes things happen like that. I think the character design has turned out well and it's nice for Bobbling to have someone he can bounce off; someone he can go on adventures with.

The Dragon character was great fun. In the past I have drawn lots of different styles, techniques and methods to practice. This is because it's good for you, it rounds you as an artist. So years ago I went through a fantasy phase and that taught me a lot and this dragon was what I felt a dragon should look like, well in a cartoon setting at least.

Rudolf the reindeer he was harder, I did spend some time putting him together with several drafts. My characters are very "nosy" in look, so I knew he needed to have a decent sized nose haha...

Moving forward, what is your wish if you can have it your way in the children's book industry? 

I think I talk for anyone who is trying to break into the industry, I just wish the publishing companies would take more risks and try a broader variety of people. I understand for them that things are very difficult at the moment, they can't easily take chances. But with children they are not like adults, things they like are not necessarily what we like. They may one day see a book that we wouldn't look twice at, but it takes their imagination and then POW it's a hit.