Building Bob, the wonders of wading, and otter philosophy

Story Street #26

Welcome to Story Street – a monthly newsletter from children’s author and illustrator Jane Porter. Read on for ramblings about my life as a picture book maker, community artist, comic diarist, under-confident fiddle player and very, very amateur luthier.

November saw me running to my doormat with glee as bundles of zines arrived from my comics students around the world - a burst of creativity in every envelope. If you’d like to join the fun next term, enrolment is now OPEN! Keep reading for more details - or if you just can’t wait, click this button now:

Say hello to Bob

I’ve also been busy sewing - making the main character from my brand new picture book Be Bold Bob, illustrated by Jenni Desmond and publishing next month with Walker Books. Remember that elephant ear I showed you last time? Well now here’s the rest of Bob, in all his needlecord glory:

I honestly think I like making toys of the characters more than I like making the books. I didn’t make a pattern for Bob – I made him up as I went along, starting with the ears, then legs and arms, then the trunk and body, adding darts here and there to shape him how I wanted him.

If ONLY I could make a violin this easily – maybe I should just make a cuddly corduroy fiddle with a crochet tailpiece and gold silk strings, and have done with it?

Bob is stuffed very lightly with wool – just enough to give him structure, but not so much that he can’t sit down and flop comfortably. Flopping despondently is an important part of the story… but more on that next time. I followed Jenni’s wonderful drawings very carefully, right down to the little tufts of wool on his head and tail. She had given him a red and white striped t-shirt, and luckily I had an old one that I could cut up and tailor to fit him.

Be Bold Bob will be published by Walker Books on January 2nd - and by Candlewick in the US next June (and also in the Netherlands in April as Dappere Duuk). Bob is very shy, but he LOVES to sing… as long as no-one is listening. When he bumps into a ukelele-playing pangolin deep in the forest, she tells him a secret that helps him find the confidence to use his voice in public. This story is for quiet children everywhere, to help them to speak out, share their views, and show their talents.

I know how it feels to be bursting with ideas - but yet somehow incapable of expressing them out loud. I was a very, very quiet child and barely spoke a word out loud in class in my entire time at school, let alone performed in any way. It’s taken me decades to get there - I hope this story will help speed up the process for others.

This world has been dominated for far too long by egocentric loud-mouths - let’s hear it for a quiet revolution. 

I’m going to be chatting to Jenni on Zoom very soon to make a video all about Bob – look out for that in my next newsletter. I’ll tell you all about how the story evolved – from something completely different.

I got Bob finished just in time for the World Premiere of Be Bold Bob for Year 1 at Albemarle Primary School.

Bob was naturally a little bit nervous, and hid behind his giant ears at first. But the children listened intently, and I could just feel them urging him on and willing him to succeed in his ambitions to sing on stage. There was a gasp as Paloma the supportive pangolin suffered a ukelele malfunction, and Bob ran away and hid in the bushes. What happened next? You’ll have to buy the book to find out!

After I had read the story one little girl said, “If I met Bob, I’d put my arms around him and tell him everything would be OK”. Children are such natural empaths, I was very touched by her words.

I also took the book to my local nursery, and we made collage versions - isn’t this blushing Bob just the bees knees?

If you’d like to pre-order a copy, just click the button below:

The wonders of wading

For around 20 years prior to lockdown, I was a regular volunteer with the South East Rivers Trust at cleanups on the river Wandle. I loved getting dirty in the river, heaving out all sorts of rubbish. Since the pandemic though, SERT have moved away from regular cleanups to a different working pattern - and I have really missed getting in the water in waders. But during November I had a chance to ‘wader up’ again for a floating pennywort clearance session in Morden Hall Park - and I was so happy.

It’s inspired me to get back to my sadly long-neglected graphic novel project, The Ghost Carp (or, Moby Dick in Waders). Here’s Abe (Captain Ahab of course) raging about a broken umbrella… more to come soon.

The secret dreams of alpacas – and other comics class treats

My online comics class has been so much fun this term – we’ve had comics about an alpaca who’s in love with Liam Gallagher, snowy instructions from Yoko Ono, mutinous deckchairs and a terrible misunderstanding about a (chocolate) bomb - among many, many other wonders. I love all my students, they are so inspiring - not least when brilliant bundles of Zines for our termly swap start arriving on my doormat!

Just look at this splendid selection:

"Thank you for running such a fun course. I feel like my brain is overflowing with Zine ideas!" Beth, London

"I am really enjoying the class, it is helping reconnect me to my creativity", Molly, Delaware

"Your classes have helped me in so many ways. Your class allows me to document my life story in a comic diary freely without judgment of my artistic ability. I enjoy looking back - thank you." Gloria, New York 

"Thank you so much for the amazing comics class. It was such a joy to turn up every Wednesday and get fuelled with inspiration." Tara, Amsterdam

Comics class can be therapeutic too. I was so touched when one of my students in Massachusetts spontaneously made a comic called ‘How comics class can make me feel’ - she’s given me permission to share it here:

I think it captures perfectly what I feel about the class too - it’s a joyful and comforting connection with people around the world in dark times. Thankyou so much Sarah!

The new term starts on Wednesday January 15th 2025, and enrolment is now open if you’d like to join. It’s still an extraordinarily reasonable £175 for ten x 2 hour Zoom sessions - if you’d like to know more, click this link for all the info including how to sign up.

Otter philosophy

Being a picture book author and illustrator has many ups and downs… you can toil over an idea for months or years, only to have it disappear without trace. And even when the miracle of publication does happen, often you can feel that the book itself has been forgotten almost immediately.

But sometimes lovely things happen out of the blue – like finding out that my 2019 picture book King Otter was used recently for a philosophical discussion by children in Türkiye.

In my story, Otter finds a box of fine clothes and declares himself King - then makes increasingly difficult demands of all the other animals. At first, they willingly go along with his orders… but eventually it all gets too much, and a peaceful rebellion follows. This is what a Turkish teacher told me:

“In the philosophy workshop with children, we tried to think about the concepts of submission, obedience and authority using your story. Everyone loved the story. Thank you very much for providing us with this very meaningful tool and allowing us to think about it.”

I was delighted, what an honour!

Books, books and more books

In other news… my lovely husband has written a book. It’s not a picture book, but it has lots of pictures in it:

If you are curious about why the idea of the cottage has such a grip on our collective imagination, this is a fascinating exploration of that topic - with added floor plans, cigarette cards and all sorts of wondrous visual details. You can find out more here:

The festive season is hurtling towards us – and what could possibly be a better present than a book? I’ve got a selection of my own picture books and lots of others I can heartily recommend gathered together here, especially for your convenience:

If you need a present for older children – or inquisitive adults - Chris Haughton’s new book The Story of Information is astoundingly good. I’ve learned so much from reading it, and I really believe if this book was read in all schools world-wide, we’d be facing a much brighter future. It’s also visually very appealing as you would expect from the creator of classics like ‘Oh No George’.

And if you’d like to give a book to a child you don’t know, Booktrust are running their annual campaign send book gifts to children in care and through community food banks - it’s a very good cause that can make a real difference, so do think about making a donation here:

What on earth is this?

I’m going to leave you with a picture quiz: I had a big tidy up of my work space recently and came across this photo I took a few years ago.

Can you guess what it is? Let me know your ideas – and I’ll tell you the answer in the next episode of Story Street on January 1^st. See you in 2025! And as always, if you’ve enjoyed this newsletter do share it with your friends, and make sure you’re subscribed (it’s free).