Are you sitting comfortably? Allow me to tell you a story of the creation of a picture book. One hot day we went along to The Truman Brewery in East London to witness the culmintaion of degree shows from throughout the land at New Blood. We were rather taken by a beautifully made portfolio on show at the Edinburgh stand and with the creator Kristyna Litten who introduced herself to us at the fair. She had worked on a picture book for her final project and had a printed copy made up, it looked very professional and was a wonderful little story about a chicken called Chuck and his experiments with carrots.
Here he is with his friends and teacher wondering why Chickens Can’t See In The Dark…
Several publishers were also rather interested in Krisyna’s book idea and we received a surprise package in the post from Helen Mortimer from OUP..
What a lovely package containing freshly baked carrot cupcakes and a felt model of Chuck, along with an offer to publish the book. Well it was hard not to refuse, so we set to work. But there were a few changes to make to the characters and to the text. Kristyna started to rework her ideas with help from her editor and her designer.
Chuck became Pippa and her story was retold.
And today it’s being published, many congratulations to Kristyna and we hope all the hard work will be worth it.
