The Utterly Imaginitive World of Lauren Child

Today I was giddy to attend The International Festival of Literature in Dubai, a three day event hosted at Dubai Festival City, to see Lauren Child speak!! There I sat six rows back watching this very charming author/illustrator of some fantastic children's books among a full audience of fans, including many young girls perched on the edge of their seats, just like me.

Lauren Child talked about her inspiration and on a large screen behind her displayed early sketches of some of her best known characters, notably Clarice Bean. She was funny and down to earth wearing pretty white ballet flats. She showed this wonderful illustration that hasn't been published of Clarice Bean's mother---poised in a beautiful ballgown with head up balancing teacups on her nose. She said she created grownups in her books that must have had "fantastic" and "unusual" lives before their children, as when she was younger she stated, "I couldn't believe my parents had ever done anything interesting or glamourous." ha!

She spoke about how important integrating words into her pictures were. How she emphasized the different types of font she used. And how certain pages couldn't exist without the use of certain word layouts. As I children's librarian, I know the importance of "letter awareness" and it was interesting to hear her talk about it and show off certain pieces of her work.

She said she wants to do a new Charlie and Lola book! There are only three (+ board books) of these she has herself written as the others are just inspired from her characters for the tv spin-off. She said she wanted to reclaim them as her own.

She made us smile talking about how Heratio was an only child and she had fantasized about that as a child herself. Did you fantasize about being an only child? I never remember that, but I can see some of the appeal. All that attention. The spotlight.

And finally she talked about That Pesky Rat and her charity work with Unicef. All proceeds of the book are donated to this organization's work with the education of children in need. She said she used to give money to organizations like most people who can, which is very important, but she has realized the importance of human contact - of showing your time. She shared pictures of her travels that were very touching and talked about the sweet children she met in Mexico, Vietnam and Mongolia.

She answered questions and I bravely stood up first and told her how much I loved her illustrated version of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren and would she talk about the process of working on that book. She said it was one of the hardest things she has worked on and spoke about how she generally doesn't illustrate for anyone else and how hard it is to get inside someone else's head. Pippi was a loved book in her childhood and she was able to spend time with Lindgren's family. She talked again about the process of integrating a swirl of words and different type with illustrations she had in mind. The importance of book design. If only I had a copy of that book for her to sign or if they were selling it! ah!


Ms. Child did sign books. I picked out two Charlie and Lola board books I liked. She was very nice and it was neat how she opened up the book and integrated her signature and the inscription into the book design. I have neglected my weekly book share on Sundays the last couple weeks, but you can only imagine who's work I will show this Sunday.

If you haven't visited her website or the Charlie and Lola website, do! Lots of fun. What an amazing job she has! If only.....