A silly summer of poop...

I am excited to feature this Q&A on our blog. Previous books from beach have involved dragons and lots of giggles, now we have ... well is it a horse ... is it a unicorn ... maybe it's a poopicorn? All of Beach's books have truly struck a chord with our younger readers and with the children I often read to, so thank you Beach for the books and for taking the time to answer these questions, Louise 

Thank you, Louise! I’m delighted to be here.

I was looking closely at Poopicorn and found you hide lots of quirky illustrations inside the main ones. Is that your favourite part of illustrating a book?

My favourite part is drawing the characters. But I do love picture books you can read over and over again so it’s fun to add those extra touches that you might not spot the first time round. 

Do your illustrations happen intentionally when you are planning a story or do you find yourself doodling and a story making itself known as a result? 

Ooh, good question! Poopicorn actually came from a conversation with my art director, Emily. We were discussing mythical creatures and I was arguing that dragons are better than unicorns because dragons can fly and breathe fire, whereas unicorns just stand around looking fancy. I mean imagine how much fun you could have if you invited a dragon to a birthday party. A unicorn would just gaze in the mirror and pop all the balloons with its horn.

So after I put the phone down I started wondering if it was possible to draw a unicorn that was as cool as a dragon. And what sort of magical powers it would need in order to have any hope of stealing the show at a party. And so scritch, scratch and a few doodles later … and a Poopicon was born!

Your books are always guaranteed to have a brilliant colour scheme. Have you ever considered monochrome or duotone illustration?

That’s very kind of you. I actually find colour quite tricky, so the blaze of ink in the books is all thanks to my brilliant art directors, Chloë and Emily, who have both pushed me hard to embrace my inner rainbow!

I have to ask. Do you believe in unicorns and have you ever met one?

Strangely enough my daughter saw a unicorn in our garden the same week that the book came out. My wife claims it was a deer, but I’ve seen the photos and it’s definitely a unicorn.

Poopicorn is, of course, a unique character with a dodgy bottom. What is it, do you think, that children find so appealing and so funny about bottoms?

I think the real question is what is it about bottoms that is NOT funny? Have you SEEN a bottom? They’re hilarious! 

The story rhymes wonderfully. Is rhyming a talent you have always had or something you’ve developed when writing your books?

It’s definitely not a talent – I find it really hard! It can sometimes take me an entire day just to write two lines. But I’m also incredibly stubborn and I know that if I keep going long enough then eventually I will stumble across something that works. 

But my real secret weapon is my editor, Isobel. She makes the books WAY better than I anything I could write on my own.     

Before Poopicorn there has been a series of dragon stories, will we now get a series of Poopicorn ones? I certainly hope so, as do my young readers!

Aw, thank you. I’m actually working on a second book at the moment so there will be at least one more. Does two books count as a series? I’m not sure!

If you were able to perform magic what would your top trick be and why?

It’s not a magic trick but I’ve always thought it would be very cool to be able to do a standing back flip. In fact anything acrobatic that doesn’t end with me in a heap would be amazing. I’d even settle for a cartwheel.

I love the combination of silliness and alluring topics – the big vehicles in this story for example. Were you trying to be as ridiculous as possible?

I was mainly trying to think of things that I enjoy drawing!

At the end of the story our poor Poopicorn is, understandably, sleepy. Do you think this would make a good bedtime story?

I hope so. Although I hesitated over the ending as I didn’t want it to feel like a story that should only be read at bedtime. But as soon as I found the last line then I knew it would have to end with Poopicorn tucked up in bed. 

As a reader, what makes you laugh the most or do you prefer your own reading to be a bit more serious?

No, I like books that make me laugh. Although I’ve never actually considered what makes me laugh the most. Maybe I should! The last book that made me laugh out loud was Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons if that’s any sort of answer. 

Finally, thank you so much for answering these questions. Will you continue to write picturebooks or dip your toes into other age groups?

I love books of every shape and size. So a big YES to more picture books and another big YES to all the other kinds of books – comic books, chapter books, pop-up books, fact books, activity books – I’d love to make them all. Whether or not I could persuade a publisher to let me loose on all of those is another question but there’s no harm in dreaming!

Poopicorn, and all of Beach's books are available from all good bookshops, they are published by Simon & Schuster Children's Books and my thanks to Lizzie Irwin in publicity for making this happen.

If you'd like to read my review of Poopicorn it is in this weeks Postbag Picks. You can see it here, if you like it please head to the Armadillo site and sign up for your weekly bookish treat!