There is much more to a children’s book than cute pictures and pat morals. The narrative must be recognizable but fresh, the obstacles formidable but comprehensible. Moreover, with an audience that’s just beginning to pair words and images, picture book prose must resonate with young minds while meshing with evocative, imaginative art that recalls the landscapes of life in childhood and beyond while endowing them with something intangibly fantastic.
Creating a classic picture book is a task that requires attention to detail: to the smiles, frowns and leaps of children; to the drama of the everyday as seen from a non-adult perspective; and to the delicate and subtle feelings of tiny protagonists. It is a task which Shirley Hughes has accomplished many times over.
Hughes is the author and illustrator of the much-beloved children’s books Dogger and the Alfie series. Educated at the Liverpool School of Art and Oxford’s own Ruskin School, Hughes began her lifelong career illustrating projects including Noel Streatfield’s The Bell Family and children’s classic My Naughty Little Sister. Her first solo work, Lucy and Tom, was published in 1960, and she has since been the creative drive behind a world of memorable story-books.She has been applauded for her work on numerous occasions-receiving the Kate Greenaway Medal for Dogger, the Eleanor Farjeon Award for Services to Children’s Literature, and The Other Award. In 1998 Hughes also received an OBE for Services to Children’s Literature. Hughes’ latest book, the graphic novel Bye, Bye Birdie, came out last month.
When asked about Dogger and the Alfie books, Hughes claims that she never expected them to become staples of children’s literature. ‘I was amazed when I got into print, all those years ago. I was then in England, and I was told I wouldn’t be acceptable abroad. They said, this is all very well Shirley, but you’re too English! It just shows, you can’t predict what’s going to be a success and what isn’t!’
Discernible character-types and themes run through Hughes’ work. In particular there is the lost boy. Just look at Hughes’ retelling of Peter Pan (1976) and in The Lion and the Unicorn (1998) to see what we mean. J.M. Barrie’s tale was apparently a joy to work on. ‘It’s a very strange story, and Barrie was a very strange man. But it is an absolute classic; it’s got everything-flying, piracy, fighting-so it’s a bull job to be offered.’
Hughes is frank about the personal aspect of the lost child character in her books. ‘I was a child in World War Two. Being evacuated was a very terrible experience for a lot of children-it happened to me. We had several evacuated children all around us from when the blitz on Liverpool began, so I wanted to do a story about that.’
Hughes doesn’t just want to channel her experiences through pictures and prose-she feels that her art can help children understand these experiences and branch out into other types of reading. ‘I also feel, very strongly, that picture books can be used as a springboard into poetry, into legend, and into much bigger ideas, like this idea of being sent away during the war. And children will go on from picture books to other fiction that connects with that.’
She doesn’t just illustrate her own work – she feels that bringing someone else’s words to life has an appeal all of its own. ‘Its such enormous fun to illustrate another person’s book. You have to let your imagination run riot on what they’ve written and give it a visual form,’ Hughes said. ‘Doing your own book, you’re in charge of the whole thing-you give yourself a story that you want to illustrate-whereas if you’re illustrating someone else’s book, you’re trying to inhabit their imagination. I illustrated some stories called My Naughty Little Sister, by Dorothy Edwards; I didn’t meet her beforehand. When I did eventually meet her, she said, did you know that this little girl you’ve drawn looks exactly like me at that age? It’s very funny how you catch on to things.’
Hughes’s newest book, the wildly experimental Bye, Bye Birdie, has been pitched as a graphic novel for adults. In the wordless novel, a dapper young man meets an attractive woman on the street. He courts her, wins her over, and takes her home-only to discover, when she removes her hat, that she has the face of a bird and the instincts of a predator. A chase through several dimensions ensues. In Bye, Bye Birdie, the silent film meets graphic novel horror at its best.
However, the author would rather not box it in. ‘I wouldn’t categorize it,’ said Hughes, ‘I just had this idea for a wordless story. But the idea, I suppose, of a little chap being relentlessly pursued by a predatory bird woman with a very sharp beak is very unnerving-especially to men, it seems. I don’t know that children would be particularly frightened by it. But my hero does manage to give her quite a run for her money, or rather a flight for her money. He is a true dandy, and he keeps on trying to survive. But he just cannot get away from her, you know?’
The novel and its format were inspired by the cartoons and choreographed dancing film greats of Hughes’ childhood. ‘I’ve been fascinated by strip cartoon all my life,’ said the author. ‘The very sophisticated strip cartoons came in when a lot of the American GIs came in to Liverpool, near where I was living, during World War Two. So I’ve always had strip cartoon as a form of storytelling in my mind. I just love doing it. As for the hero, he’s a sort of boulevardier. He’s halfway between Buster Keaton and Fred Astaire.’
The author-illustrator is returning to her picture book roots for her next work. As she describes it, ‘My next book is going back to the audience of the very young child. It’s called Don’t Want to Go, and it’s about a little girl and that terrible moment when Dad is sort of at his wits end, Mother has the flu, and Dad’s got to go to work.’ Apparently, the idea was a hit among new parents when Hughes presented the book to publishers. ‘When it was brought out at the acquisitions meeting at Random House, a lot of young mothers were on the staff, and said they’d been in that position.’
That is a reflection of Hughes’ talent for capturing parent-child interactions in words and images, a consistent strength that has made her beloved of children and adults alike. ‘I think picture books for the very young are what I was put on this earth to do, and will go on doing, with great pleasure,’ she said. ‘But I will keep doing lots of other exciting things as well, I hope.’
So does she intend to do more graphic novels for adults?
‘Yes, I do,’ said Hughes. ‘I’ve just got to get a good idea first.’