Follow the Yellow

Archive of ‘children’s books’ category

World Book Day Dressing Up Ideas: Lottie and Friends

lottie_1

elisabeth_2

sophie_1

Looking for some quick and easy dressing up ideas for World Book Day? You might already have spotted my tips for dressing as Sophie, Lil or one of the characters from the Sinclair’s Mysteries or Taylor & Rose Secret Agents.

This time, to celebrate World Book Day and the publication of Lottie the Little Wonder, I thought I’d share some easy ideas for dressing as Lottie or one of the other historical heroines from my Little Gems books – perfect if you need a last-minute costume. (And as a bonus, you’ll be all ready to celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, too!)

My little helper dressed up in the outfits above, which were made up from things we found in her wardrobe or around the house. Here’s a few ideas if you’d like to come up with something similar.

lottieLottie from Lottie the Little Wonder illustrated by Ella Okstad

We used a white school t-shirt and a white skirt, but you could use any white skirt and top, or a white dress. Pair with black tights and black shoes or boots. If you have one, a white cap would complete the outfit to perfection!

Accessorize with a tennis racket, a tennis ball, or perhaps even a shiny trophy. (I couldn’t find a tennis racket, but thought this old squash racket made a perfectly reasonable substitute!)

elisabeth

 

For Elisabeth from Elisabeth and the Box of Colours illustrated by Rebecca Cobb

We started with a long, brightly-coloured dress, but you could also wear a skirt and top. We added a frilly white petticoat underneath, tights and black shoes. Wear a bright bow around your hair.

The most important part of this costume is of course, the art materials. We used a paint palette with lots of colourful paint, and some brushes, but as an alternative you could bring along a box of coloured crayons. A paint-smeared apron might also be a fun addition.

sophieFor Sophie from Sophie Takes to the Sky illustrated by Briony May Smith

We started with a yellow dress, but you could also wear a skirt and top. Tie a pink ribbon or scarf around your waist as a sash, and tie your hair back with a bow.

We accessorised with a balloon, as a nod to the hot-air balloon that sweeps Sophie up into the clouds – but as an alternative, you could carry a few snacks tied up in a checked cloth, just as Sophie carries her lunch in the story.

rose-for-newsletterFor Rose from Rose’s Dress of Dreams illustrated by Kate Pankhurst

My model was running out of steam at this point in our fashion shoot, so I don’t have a picture here, but for this costume, you could start with a striped dress or skirt and top (ideally red and white, but any stripe would do!). Add a red ribbon or scarf to tie around your waist as a sash, and a red bow/ribbon for your hair.

To finish off, why not bring along a few sewing supplies – some scissors, a pin cushion, or some cotton reels, maybe carried in a sewing box or basket?

If you try one of these ideas, make sure you tag me in any photos you share online – I’d love to see how your costumes turn out!

And for some extra World Book Day fun, you could also design your own Rose’s Dress of Dreams fashion creations, create an Elisabeth-inspired self-portrait, decorate a Sophie Takes to the Sky hot air balloon, or test your tennis knowledge with this Lottie wordsearch.

Recipe: Gingerbread angels and tea with jam

FhM_yDhWYAEQTslIn my book, A Dancer’s Dream, one of Stana’s favourite Christmas traditions is eating gingerbread angels, and drinking tea with jam. If you’d like to have a go at recreating this treat – for yourself, or to share with family and friends – here’s how:

Gingerbread angels

This recipe is based on Felicity Cloake’s gingerbread biscuit recipe, which is a big favourite in our house.  If you don’t have an angel shaped biscuit-cutter, you could make snowflakes, stars, Christmas trees or any other festive shapes.

  • Put 225g softened unsalted butter in a bowl, and beat with a wooden spoon
  • Add 340g of soft brown sugar and beat again
  • Add one beaten egg to the mixture. Continue to beat gently (don’t worry if it begins to curdle – just add in a little plain flour)
  • Mix 340g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 3 tsp ground ginger and 2 tsp mixed spice in a separate bowl, and then add to the butter, sugar and egg mixture
  • Stir until the mixture comes together in a smooth dough
  • Spread out some clingfilm on your work surface, and put the gingerbread dough on top. Cover it with another piece of clingfilm, then roll flat with a rolling pin until the dough is about 3mm thick
  • Transfer your dough onto a chopping board and pop it into the fridge for 30 minutes
  • Heat your oven to 190 C and lightly grease your baking sheet(s)
  • Take out the dough, remove the top layer of clingfilm and use an angel-shaped biscuit cutter to cut out your biscuits
  • Arrange your biscuits carefully on the baking sheet, remembering to leave space between them, as they will spread when they are in the oven
  • Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool

I like to eat my gingerbread angels just as they are, but you can also decorate them with white icing if you prefer.

Russian tea with jam

To accompany your gingerbread angels, try this traditional Russian way of drinking tea. You can use any loose-leaf black tea you like, but I like this Russian Caravan blend from my local tea/coffee producers Atkinsons.

  • Boil some water in your kettle. Put a small amount of hot water into the bottom of your teapot to warm it, then discard.
  • Put some loose tea-leaves into the teapot – use 1 heaped teaspoon per cup, plus an extra spoonful ‘for the pot’.
  • Add 2-3 tablespoons of berry jam to the pot – try strawberry, cherry, raspberry or blackcurrant.
  • Leave the tea to brew for around 5 minutes, allowing the flavours to develop
  • Using a tea-strainer, pour the tea into your cups. You can serve some jam in a little dish alongside your tea in case anyone would like to add another spoonful to their cup.

Drink and enjoy with a gingerbread angel on the side – perhaps while listening to the music of Tchiakovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’, or leafing through your copy of A Dancer’s Dream?

(The picture below is from my own trip to St Petersburg a couple of years ago, when I was researching Spies in St Petersburg. Many Russian treats were sampled as part of the research process!)

045f9fb3-cbd3-4230-a17e-c4be121925f6
Buy A Dancer’s Dream by Katherine Woodfine, illustrated by Lizzy Stewart from Waterstones or Bookshop.org

The real inspiration for Elisabeth and the Box of Colours

440px-Self-portrait_in_a_Straw_Hat_by_Elisabeth-Louise_Vigée-Lebrun

Self Portrait in a Straw Hat by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

My third book for Barrington Stoke’s super-readable Little Gems series is Elisabeth and the Box of Colours. Like the other two books I have written for Barrington Stoke, it is inspired by a real-life character from history – in this case, the French artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, who was born in Paris in 1755.

Élisabeth loved drawing from a very early age: she described herself as having ‘an inborn passion for art’. She went away to a convent boarding school aged 6, and while there, she often found herself in trouble for drawing. In her memoirs, she wrote:

During that time I scrawled on everything at all seasons; my copy-books, and even my schoolmates’, I decorated with marginal drawings of heads, some full-face, others in profile; on the walls of the dormitory I drew faces and landscapes with coloured chalks. So it may easily be imagined how often I was condemned to bread and water. I made use of my leisure moments outdoors in tracing any figures on the ground that happened to come into my head.

Her father, Louis Vigée, was an artist and encouraged Élisabeth’s love of drawing. Seeing a drawing she had made at the age of only seven or eight years old, he reportedly exclaimed: ‘You will be a painter, child, if ever there was one!’

My story takes particular inspiration from Élisabeth’s childhood, including her close relationship with her father. I have made a few changes to Élisabeth’s real story: in my version, Louis dies when Élisabeth is away at school, whereas in real life, he died around a year after she left school, when she was 12 years old. However, just like in my story, her sadness and grief affected her very deeply, leaving her unable to draw for a while. ‘So heartbroken was I that it was long before I felt able to take to my crayons again’ she wrote later. But after a little time, she returned to making art, as a way to help herself cope with her ‘sad thoughts’.

With help and encouragement from her father’s friends, Élisabeth continued to pursue a career as an artist. She set up her own studio by the age of 15, by which time she was painting portraits professionally. Although she was young and had no formal training, she quickly became very successful. She painted many of the most important people in Paris, and even became one of the very few female members of the French Royal Academy.

In 1778, she was invited to the Palace of Versailles to paint Queen Marie Antoinette. She soon became one of the queen’s favourite painters, as well as her friend. In total, she painted over 30 portraits of the queen, including many of the images of her that are the most familiar and recognisable to us today. Among these were an image of Marie Antoinette in a straw hat and a plain white muslin dress (1783) – which has become probably the most famous image of the French queen. At the time, the portrait was considered highly controversial because of the informal, simple style in which the queen was dressed: she was criticised for appearing in a public portait ‘wearing a chambermaid’s dust cloth’ and even accused of mocking the dignity of the French throne.

Another of Élisabeth’s most famous paintings of the queen was Marie Antoinette and Her Children (1787) which showed the queen at home at the Palace of Versailles surrounded by her children. The painting was intended to help improve the queen’s image, by making her seem more relatable to ordinary people, and show her in a sympathetic light.

MA-Lebrun 1280px-Marie_Antoinette_and_her_Children_by_Élisabeth_Vigée-Lebrun

 

But in spite of such efforts, just two years later, Queen Marie Antoinette and the rest of the royal family were arrested during the French Revolution. Élisabeth and her daughter Julie escaped from Paris, and travelled around Europe, living in Italy, Russia and Germany. Élisabeth continued to work as a portrait artist, painting many of Europe’s most important people, as well as painting landscapes and history scenes. Today, her work can be found in art galleries and museums all over the world.

Towards the end of her life, Élisabeth returned to France, and when she was in her 80s she published her memoirs (Souveniers). It was the intriguing and vivid recollections from her childhood that are included in the first part of these memoirs which helped to inform my story, Elisabeth and the Box of Colours. Here’s a little more about my version of Élisabeth’s story, which has been gorgeously illustrated by Rebecca Cobb.

elisabethElisabeth loves to paint, just like her papa. She spends hours making her own pictures of everything she sees – and the more colourful, the better!

But when she goes away to school, she finds herself in a world of grey: grey buildings, grey uniforms, grey rooms. She misses Papa and all the colours of home. And one winter morning, she gets some terrible news that makes her days darker than ever before. Will Elisabeth be able to find the colour and joy in her life again?

‘A small, elegant triumph’ – The Times, Children’s Book of the Week

‘Beautifully told in spare, resonant words… A transporting little tale’ – The Guardian

‘Absolutely gorgeous. Pure, wondrous joy … What an inspiring gem of a book’ – author Liz Hyder

A ‘modern-day Madeline… offering hope and encouragment’ – The Times, Ten Brilliant New Children’s Books to Enjoy on World Book Day

Buy it now from Waterstones, Bookshop.org.uk or Amazon

Find out more about the real stories that helped to inspire my other books for the Little Gems series – Rose’s Dress of Dreams and Sophie Takes to the Sky

Check out my list of more brilliant children’s books about art and artists

Elisabeth and the Box of Colours

elisabeth

My latest book Elisabeth and the Box of Colours is out now!

Illustrated by the amazing Rebecca Cobb, it was published earlier this month, as part of Barrington Stoke’s Little Gems series.

The story is inspired by the childhood of French portait artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.

Here’s a bit more about the book:

Elisabeth loves to paint, just like her papa. She spends hours making her own pictures of everything she sees – and the more colourful, the better! But when she goes away to school, she finds herself in a world of grey: grey buildings, grey uniforms, grey rooms. She misses Papa and all the colours of home. And one winter morning, she gets some terrible news that makes her days darker than ever before. Will Elisabeth be able to find the colour and joy in her life again?

I’d been interested in writing about the young Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun for a while, but it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that I understood what this story should really be about – how art helps us deal with sadness and loss.

It was such a delight to collaborate with Rebecca for this book. I’ve known Rebecca for a number of years, and we share an agent – and I’m a huge fan of her work and love sharing her wonderful books with my daughter, all of which made the chance to collaborate particularly special. Her beautiful illustrations have transformed the story and perfectly convey the idea at its heart – the power of creativity to uplift us, even in the darkest times.

Together, we dedicated this book to ‘all the young artists and storytellers’ — and to celebrate it, we shared some of our own own childhood artistic creations, which helped set us on the path to our future careers. (You can see them on Twitter or Instagram – just have a look for the hashtag #ElisabethandtheBoxofColours)

cc8d3e90-cb06-67f1-83f5-44f00c9b7f13

One of Rebecca’s gorgeous illustrations for the book!

We were delighted that the book was chosen as the Times Children’s Book of the Week, and got a great write-up from Alex O’Connell who described it as ‘a small, elegant triumph’.

Last weekend it was also included in the Guardian’s February children’s book round-up: ‘Beautifully told in spare, resonant words… full of Cobb’s delightful images… A transporting little tale.’

If you’d like to buy a copy of Elisabeth and the Box of Colours, you can get it from Waterstones, Bookshop.org or of course, your favourite local independent bookshop.

You can find out more about the artist who inspired the book here.

And if you’ve been inspired to have a go at creating a portrait yourself, this new activity sheet will get you started.

You might also like to check out my list of more brilliant children’s books about art and artists

The End of an Era

nin final for web

The final Taylor & Rose Secret Agents book, Nightfall in New York has now been out for a month, and I’ve had the chance to reflect on coming to the end of the story that began in The Clockwork Sparrow.

Below you can see a picture of me at Waterstones Piccadilly in London, where I went to sign copies in July – a moment which for me, brought the adventure full circle. If you’ve read the books, you probably know that the fictional Sinclair’s department store (where Sophie and Lil’s adventures first began) is situated in the same spot as Waterstones Piccadilly, close to Piccadilly Circus. The shop also has a particularly special place in my heart, as it was where I first learned that The Clockwork Sparrow was a Sunday Times bestseller back in 2015 – it’s where I celebrated it being shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize – and of course, because of the absolutely amazing window display, when it was Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month.

26726b06-0cca-465d-9e3f-fb0d51c7073e

It feels a very long time since I first started writing about Sophie and Lil. I still vividly remember how it began – imagining what was to become the opening scene of The Clockwork Sparrow, where we see Sophie heading off to work at Sinclair’s, rattling through the crowded London streets on a busy omnibus. I’ve been with Sophie and Lil on their adventures ever since, writing about them for the best part of a decade, so it feels very strange to have said ‘farewell’. Yet I’m still confident that this was exactly the right moment to bring their adventures to a close.

It’s been really wonderful to have so many lovely messages from readers over the last few weeks, who’ve been getting in touch to let me know how much they’ve enjoyed the end of the story. And I’ve been asked one question many, many times over – a variation on ‘is this REALLY the end?’ Readers have asked if I’m going to do any more series about Sophie and Lil, whether I’ll be writing any form of spin-off about any of the other characters from the series, or whether I plan to write any more set in the same ‘world’ as this story.

The short answer is no – at the moment I have no plans to write any kind of a continuation, or spin-off. But never say never! I know how much I will miss Sophie and Lil and I’d certainly never say for sure that the door is closed. After all, who knows whether I might be inspired to write in the future?

Readers have also been asking me questions about the ending of Nightfall in New York, and specifically about some of the elements that are left open, or unresolved. I’m not going to go into any details about that here, to avoid spoilers – but what I will say is that leaving the ending a little open was absolutely deliberate. Personally, as a reader, I don’t always want every detail to be neatly tied up and resolved, so I’ve intentionally left a little space for the reader’s imagination to fill. That also felt particularly apt for Sophie and Lil. Sophie has already got used to the idea that there are some things about her past and her family that she may never know. But also, for both of them at this stage of their lives, the future is full of possibilities…

Now that I’ve finished writing the book, the story isn’t mine any more – it belongs to the reader. It’s up to you to make up your own mind what might come next – and really, that’s by far the most fun!

As Nightfall in New York is the last Taylor & Rose story, I knew I wanted to celebrate it as much as possible. Covid has made that a little more challenging than I could ever have expected, but I’ve still been doing my utmost to enjoy the publication of the final book. There have been lots of amazing online celebrations, including a wonderful virtual event for Waterstones with three fellow historical fiction authors – Lucy Ivision, Ella Risbridger and Emma Carroll.

I made my first trip to London in almost 18 months, celebrated with my wonderful editor Sarah Levison, and visited lots of lovely bookshops with publicist (and friend) extraordinaire Nina Douglas to sign copies. Last week, I also took a little tour of bookshops close to me in Lancashire – you can currently find signed books at Waterstones Lancaster, Waterstones Preston, Ebb & Flo in Chorley, Book Bean & Ice Cream in Kirkham, Storytellers Inc in St Annes, and Waterstones Blackpool. Next, I’ll be heading up to Edinburgh to visit bookshops and for a bit more of a celebration with my brilliant agent Louise.

It’s very strange to be at the end of such a long journey with beloved characters, and to be thinking about new writing projects and new horizons. Like Sophie and Lil at the end of Nightfall in New York though, for the moment I’m enjoying the sense of possibility, and not quite knowing what might come next…