“There’s no other book out there like it.” (You and Yours BBC Radio 4) I remember, many years ago, receiving a rather different Christmas present from my big brother Malcolm. It was a personalised book called “Wizwam and I in Africa”. It wasn’t a particularly great story and the quality was fairly ropey, but it featured a wacky wizard (Wizwam), …
An interview with Jodie Wonford A good children’s picture book may revolve around a good story, but ultimately it’s the illustrations that bring it to life. So when we started Tickled Moon, we knew that finding a good illustrator would be crucial to the success of the books. Jodie Wonford was suggested to us by a friend of a friend …
…And the Perils of Pandemic Parenting What a bizarre and unsettled world we’re living in right now. Lockdown life has been thrown upon us, ensuring that we’ve all had to become rapid experts at things like Zoom, washing hands and sourcing toilet paper. And of course, pandemic parenting. Having to spend 24/7 with your children, being parent, teacher and Keeper …
And how joyful activities with your children can help you all When our normal lives are turned upside down – as they currently are – it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We can’t think straight and all our best intentions for positive parenting can go out of the window, as we struggle to find the ‘right way up’ to get through …
(For Perfecting Playfulness) Yes it’s back! By popular demand (thanks mum…), MORE Peachy Poetry, this time for Perfecting Playfulness! (And if you’re thinking What Is Peachy Poetry? – then check out Part One for a full explanation of the genre and numerous early examples.) But first, how do you define playfulness? And perfect it?? People with serious jobs have spent …
(Or How to Create a Monster….) Yesterday, as I sat at my desk, gazing out of the window, I noticed a spider starting to spin its web. It started with one strand and then slowly, meticulously, began the painstaking process of putting another strand into place, until the whole web was perfectly complete. And so it is with writing. It …
(with a bit of help from the Queen, the Grinch and Joan Rivers…) “At this time of the year, our thoughts turn towards…” …well our dear old Queen, in her yearly Christmas Day speech, would have us thinking it’s the Commonwealth. However (correct me if I’m wrong) I’m not sure that that’s the first thing on all our minds ‘at …
When my youngest boy Charlie was 5, he came home from school to tell us that the teacher had shut him in a dark cupboard to ‘learn about death’. 😲😲😲 Anyway, after some ‘gentle extraction’, we finally worked out that they had been learning about being ‘deaf’ and ‘blind’ and that the whole class had all gone into a very …
(For Pointless Procrastinating…) Peachy Poetry? A little known form of the genre, invented circa 2019 by the poet (ahem) Alison Reddihough and dedicated to short, mostly rhyming musings about totally random things. And Pointless Procrastinating? Hey, don’t knock it! Pointless Procrastinating is underrated (as is Peachy Poetry). Both are a way to distract ourselves from the humdrum, the Tasks-You-Can’t-Face-Doing and …
(And where can I find one???) “Imagine a story so specialAbout a very unusual friendWhere YOU are the star of the storyFrom the start, right to the end. So enjoy this book dear (FIRST NAME) Because it’s written just for you!And given with lots of special loveAnd monster cuddles too!” (Dedication in “The Birthday BOO!”) When we started Tickled Moon, …