In November, our Wanna Have Fun Hen wrote a post on award winning children’s author and illustrator James Mayhew. Mr. Mayhew has written over 20 books (and illustrated many more), including the very popular “Katie” series in which a young girl goes to various museums and has adventures in famous paintings. He is passionate about introducing children to the arts, including music, ballet and visual art. Despite a surfeit of ongoing projects, Mr. Mayhew recently agreed to answer a few questions for the Five Hens and I had the honor of corresponding with him.

1. Clearly you have great talent as an artist. What inspired you to put that talent into children’s literature?

Thank you! I can only see my faults, but I think most artists are quite self-critical.

I always wanted to be an artist, since I was very small, but I think children’s books rather chose me! I wrote my first story, “Katie’s Picture Show” as a student project, with no real concern for ever being published. But I have always loved pictures that tell stories, both in terms of the illustrations in the books I grew up with, and fine art which is very often narrative, and which inspired Katie’s adventures. Naturally I was thrilled when that first book was published. Suddenly I realized how many stories and pictures I had hidden away inside my head, and that I wanted to combine words and pictures to introduce to the next generation all the things I value and believe to be important. I have made it my mission to share the things I am passionate about and feel children deserve to have a chance to experience: art, music, culture.

2. What is your favorite of the books you’ve written or illustrated, and why?

I am going to choose two, if I may: “Koshka’s Tales” (later reissued as the “Kingfisher Book of Tales from Russia”). This was a labour of love and illustrated in a ridiculously short space of time (5 weeks for 80 pages). I am fascinated with Russian art and culture. All the stories are folk tales that link to music by Russian composers: Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky etc.

The other choice is “Katie and the British Artists”. Turner is a hero of mine and also my son, Gabriel, contributed to the illustrations (aged 7!). And so I cherish that memory.

3. What in your childhood (or adulthood) made you so passionate about art?

Books at home! Books for grown-ups about famous paintings – I found them fascinating, scary, incomprehensible. All good reasons for a child to look again and again.

Also, I actually found learning to read slow and hard work. I wasn’t a “bookish” boy until my teens. Early on, I realized I am a very visual person. I loved words and stories, but like lots of boys I just found them hard to manage when I was small. When I visit schools and see children who struggle with words, I know what that feels like. I think art should be celebrated more as a way of communicating (which is exactly what illustration is about).

4. What do you think parents and educators should be doing to create interest in the arts?

With the visual arts, there are several things I always try to encourage. Firstly: make it fun. Don’t worry if art isn’t your thing, or you think you don’t understand a painting. Who cares? You can still IMAGINE. That’s what Katie is all about – what a child might see. So go to galleries and look for ugly faces, or pictures you don’t like, or angry ladies or something silly. Make up stories!

I would also encourage experimenting with art at home and in the class room, with a variety of materials. Pencils are horrible things, I struggle to draw well with one. Try drawing with ink and sticks, or make feather quills, or paint with fingers. I use house emulsion paints (water-based matte finish interior wall paint) in schools – lovely subtle colours and so inexpensive (click the thumbnails below to see examples). Above all, draw from life. Go sketching. Learn to look, really look, and learn also to love your view of the world. Everyone is different; celebrate that!

At home we use a door as my son’s gallery and display his pictures. At the moment they are mostly of giant squid!

Generally the arts are viewed by lots of parents and teachers as a bit high brow. But one should never underestimate children (or yourself). To say “I hate opera” is ridiculous. It’s like saying “I hate cinema”. Of course there are good and bad examples of any art form, and some which will appeal more than others. It would be very arrogant to imagine, in 400 years of music, there wasn’t something that surprised or intrigued or stimulated. Never close doors on things. Be open minded.

5. What other children’s literature do you enjoy?

I re-read a lot of old favourites for pleasure and also to my son who is now 10. I loved Tove Jansson’s Moomin books as a child. And Willard Price’s “Adventure” books. Ian Fleming’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was another favourite. Of more recent fare, I thought Selznik’s “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” was a brilliant combination of word and image. I also love mythology and folk-lore. Kevin Crossley-Holland is a superb teller of tales, and dazzling wordsmith.

6. I read that you have created and performed in concerts for children. What are those like? Do you write music as well?

I am not a musician, but I work with a wonderful orchestra who perform classical music. I narrate the stories that inspired the composers and simultaneously create illustrations live on stage. These are projected on an enormous screen behind the orchestra, so as the story and music progress, the painting grows. it’s quite nerve racking!

The first concert was “Peter and the Wolf”, which was very hard to illustrate live while remembering the narrator’s cues – there’s no room for error in that score! We’ve also performed Stravinsky’s “Firebird”, Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, Sibelius’ “Swan of Tuonela”, Dukas’ “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and many other piece. I want children to hear the original stories with the correct music; so much music has been used out of context in film and on TV that children have no idea of the true stories (like Rossini’s “William Tell”, which everyone thinks is “The Lone Ranger”). I want to restore the music to its correct story.

It’s an absolutely colossal undertaking, a huge amount of work, researching and learning stories, practicing the paintings, rehearsing with the orchestra. But it’s worth it. The concerts are great fun and always hugely over-subscribed. And being up on the stage surrounded by such incredible music is a wonderful experience. The images really seem to draw the children in. I suppose it gives them a visual device, an image in their heads, to help them understand them music. It seems to be pretty much unique: perhaps no-one else is mad enough to do it!

7. Describe your creative process. Is it ongoing, or do you wait for inspiration?

I always have dozens of ideas simmering away. It’s the only way. Waiting for inspiration doesn’t really work for me. I take notebooks everywhere and write or draw every day. When I am most busy I am at my most creative. Sometimes I can’t sleep because of ideas buzzing around. So yes, definitely “ongoing”!

8. You write very strong, adventurous females into your books (a big hit with those of us with daughters!). What motivates you to do that?

I have a strong and adventurous older sister (Katie!) and memories of our childhood together fed into much of my early work, which continues today as “Katie” is an ongoing series. I have written several things for boys, including “Boy” and “The knight who took all day” (The Chicken House), but I remain best known for Katie and Ella Bella. Frankly, I think girls tend to buy more books!

9. So many children’s books have been made into movies (with varying results). Will Katie or Ella Bella ever make it to the big screen?

For many years a television series of Katie was in development with an independent company based in London. Unfortunately Children’s TV in Britain is in very bad shape and TV channels have little or no money to commission a series. “Katie’s Picture Show” did, in fact, become commissioned by a British channel, but before it went into production they cancelled it because they were in financial trouble. I think Katie especially could work as a movie – so many picture books are getting adapted now. However, I’m not one of those people who sees television and film as some sort of Holy Grail. It’s not something I would chase after. For me the books are the things that matter and I’d rather it never happened than have it done badly.

10. What projects are you working on now?

More Katie and Ella Bella titles. Right now I’m finishing off “Ella Bella and Swan Lake”, then I’ll be working on “Katie in Scotland”. I also have some big projects with the National Galleries in Scotland and London which I hope will come to fruition soon. There’ll be another children’s concert, probably November, possibly “Carnival of the Animals”. I’m also writing stories for other illustrators, including my good friend Jackie Morris.

And a bonus question from my 6 year old daughter: Will Ella Bella be in more books? (To get the full effect, you have to imagine that this is being asked while she jumps up and down and is practically squealing.)

Yes (squealing back)!!! Swan Lake will be the very next story. After that. I don’t know for sure but I really want to do “The Nutcracker” and “La Boutique Fantasque” (do you know that ballet??? Gorgeous music!) and I DESPERATELY want to do “Ella Bella and The Firebird”.

For more information on James Mayhew (and a fascinating look at the origins of Katie), please visit his website http://jamesmayhew-katiespictureshow.blogspot.com/

A heartfelt thanks to James Mayhew for his time. Already I have checked out the local opera scene for kid- friendly productions and made plans to visit the impressionist gallery at the art museum, so thanks for the inspiration!