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Day 24: Trish Cooke

(http://thebrownbookshelf.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/trish_cooke_photo.jpg)Award‑winningauthor Trish Cooke’s charming picture books SO MUCH and FULL, FULL, FULL OF LOVE arethe kind of stories that have you smiling all the way through. Parents love to share them.Kids plead to hear them over and over until they know every word. Cooke lives in Britain, but he

 books have touched people around the world. Their celebration of family, tradition and blackculture resonate in delightful ways.

Though she may be known best in the U.S. for those tales, Cooke has written more than a dozen books for kids. Her latest, LOOK BACK! (Papillote Press, illustrated by Caroline Binch), draws oa magical piece of folklore from her Caribbean heritage and is already winning praise.

We’re proud to celebrate the wonderful work of Trish Cooke on Day 24:

The Journey:

I have enjoyed story making for as long as I can remember. Before I even knew how to write mystories down on paper I was acting out stories on my street, to neighbours and friends, with twoof my sisters. I remember writing fun stories at primary school. I had a way of making theordinary things that happened in my life into something quite extraordinary. One of the storiesthat comes to mind was written after spending the night at my newly married sister and brotherin law’s flat. It was about a giant rat called Samson who came to stay. When I was about nineyears old I started to keep a diary and I got into the habit of writing daily logs of what was goingon in my life. I used to embellish on the happenings of the day and my life became moreinteresting on paper than it actually was in real life. From school I went on to do a Bachelor of

 

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Arts degree in Performing Arts and afterwards I began a career as an actress. I continued writing but for some time kept my writing private. In 1987 I decided to be brave and get some of mywriting work ‘out there’. I wanted to test whether I was any good or not and the only way for meto do that was to get people to read my work and offer feedback. I had been making up stories fomy nephews and nieces and experimenting with stage plays so I sent my stories off tocompetitions and publishers and I sent my plays off to theatre companies.

I had a couple of stories about a little girl with a vivid imagination who had come to Englandfrom the Commonwealth of Dominica. I didn’t have much luck with the publishers but acompetition, led by Rymans Stationery shop, put my stories in their short list. I didn’t win the

competition but one of the judges on(http://thebrownbookshelf.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/pampam.gif)the panel, a woman called Elspeth Lindner who worked for Methuenat the time, sent me some lovely feedback and suggested that I get intouch with a literary agent called Gina Pollinger. She thought Ginamight be able to place my work with a publisher. Knowing very littleabout the publishing world I was happy for the advice and contacted

Gina immediately. I sent Gina samples of my work and she invited mto her office. Gina and her husband, Murray Pollinger, ran their ownagency. Gina was fantastic and so enthusiastic about my work. She diwarn me though that though she herself loved what I was doing, sheknew that she would have a hard time convincing publishers to buy.

Coming from a West Indian background, a lot of the characters I created spoke with the rhythmsand the dialect of the Caribbean. Gina’s job was to convince publishers that there was a marketout there for this type of work.

Gina brought my stories to Century Hutchinson publishers and they liked what I had done so far

They encouraged me to turn the stories I had done into chapters for my first book. In 1988Century Hutchinson published MAMMY SUGAR FALLING DOWN. I had my first child in 198and I

(https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0320/5ab0953bda0fe/5ab0953d8b59c.jpg)started to him. Before long I had a collection of stories for 0 to 5 year olds. Gina managed to get two of themajor publishers interested – Penguin and Walker Books. Penguin wanted to publish my work aa book of poems but I had always envisaged each of the stories I had written as single picture

 

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 books. Walker Books had the same vision and I signed with Walker Books. They offered me a fou book contract straight away and published MR PAM PAM AND THE HULLABAZOO; WHENGROW BIGGER; THE GRANDAD TREE and SO MUCH. Afterwards they published:WAITING FOR BABY and FULL,FULL,FULL OF LOVE. SO MUCH went on to win lots ofprizes: The Smarties Book Prize; Kurt Maschler Award; The WH Smith and She Magazine Awardand the book has also been translated into numerous languages and sold all over the world. SOMUCH was also included in the 2009 National Strategy good practice publication on raising

achievement of Caribbean children at foundation stage.

(https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0320/5ab0953bda0fe/5ab0953e3ead1.jpg)As well asand Century Hutchinson, over the years other publishers of my work have included: Scholastic –‘CATCH’; Frances Lincoln – HEY CRAZY RIDDLE; Franklin Watts: THE DIARY OF A YOUNGWEST INDIAN IMMIGRANT; NO DINNER FOR ANANSI (Hopscotch Myths); HOORAH

FOR MARY SEACOLE (Hopscotch Myths); Collins: ZOOM!; Collins Educational: MRSMOLLY’S SHOPPING TROLLEY; LOOKING FOR AUNTIE NATAL; Oxford University pressHOW ANANSI GOT HIS STORIES; Papillote Press: LOOK BACK! and stories in a number ofanthologies.

The Back Story:

My latest book LOOK BACK! was published in May 2013 by Papillote Press.

Papillote Press is a small publishing house based in the Commonwealth of Dominica and inLondon. Polly Pattullo who runs Papillote Press approached me and asked me to retell aDominican folktale. (https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0320/5ab0953bda0fe/5ab0953eknew my background and liked my work and we had wanted to work together on something forsome time so this looked like a great opportunity. We discussed a few ideas and I wrote somedrafts of some stories based on characters from Dominican folklore. In the end we decided on mewriting about a strange mythical character my dad had told me about when I was a child called TBolom. This mysterious creature is a little man /gnome type character that many Dominicansshare numerous tales about and I was intrigued by him. I decided to tell the story through thewords of a Dominican grandmother to her English born grandson as she remembered how shetried to hunt down the elusive Ti Bolom in her childhood. Polly was happy with the story but we

 

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still didn’t have an illustrator. We were very excited whenCaroline Binch agreed to illustrate LOOK BACK! Herillustrations are amazing. Since publishing in May we have hadinterest from several publishers outside of the UK includingInterlink Publishing who have bought the North Americanrights.

The Process:

I usually work from my office at home in Yorkshire. I have anice view from my window – a lovely skyline and lots ofgreenery .It helps to look out of the window when I get stuck.My inspiration for my early picture book stories came from mychildren and my family. Often something I heard one of

(https://reader009.{domain}/reader009/html5/0320/5ab0953bda0fe/5ab0953f6066a.jpg)my childretrigger off an idea and then I would use it as a starting point for a story and see where it led.Many of my stories start off with real life incidents but then by the time I have finished writing thstory, the original trigger is no longer at the centre of the story it has turned into something else.With my most popular book, SO MUCH , the trigger was the birth of my baby. I was just totally

 besotted with my new born son. I sang songs to him all day long and made up little stories. Myson Kieron was too little to understand much of what I was saying . The first draft of SO MUCH

was more of a song than a book with lots of repetitive sounds and gestures to keep himentertained. In my original version I had short repetitive verses where family members hugged,kissed and played with the baby. All the characters in the book are real family members, I justchanged their names. Eventually, after several drafts, a story emerged with Daddy’s secretsurprise birthday party being the reason for the family get together.

Most times I like to let a picture book story come out spontaneously. I work on the drafts later toimprove the structure but the gem of an idea has to grab the child’s attention in its first telling or won’t work. When I told SO MUCH to baby Kieron first time round he was engrossed. I can stillremember locking eyes with him as I sang out the story to him. It was magical.

 

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Once I have worked on a couple of drafts of a story I like to try it out on an audience. I can usuallsee what works and what doesn’t work when I get the reactions from my target audience. I sayaudience rather than reader because for me a book is like a stage play and the pictures, the wordsand the reading of it all culminate to make a performance.

The Buzz on Look Back!:

“Listen to the story as a grandmother shares with her grandson stories of her Caribbeanchildhood. Is the mysterious Ti Bolom real or a figment of Grannie’s active imagination? The storinterweaves the rainforest secrets with present‑day curiosity and still the reader is left guessing. Iyou want to believe… Atmospheric illustrations by Caroline Binch capture both the rainforestwith all its rich variety and the modern‑day world. A thoughtful and very special story about thepower of the imagination, with a loving family relationship at its heart.”

— Parents in touch (http://www.parentsintouch.co.uk/Book‑reviews‑fiction‑age‑2‑to‑5‑page‑8)–13th May 2013

“Look Back! by Trish Cooke and Caroline Binch (Papillote Press £6.99) even has the confidence toremind children (and parents) that fear is an inevitable part of life. This is a beautiful book withpainstaking, lifelike illustrations that pull you into the story from the start. Cooke tells a WestIndian grandmother’s tale about a predator no one has ever clapped eyes on – Ti Bolom. We meethe grandmother as a little girl with furrowed brow and braided hair, standing in a tropicalwilderness and turning to look back at… nothing. Sometimes that is the nature of fear: thepredator you never see but continue to believe exists. And I love the way the exploration collideshere with a celebration of the rapport between a grandmother and her grandson: family, at its

 best, the ultimate tonic.”

— Kate Kellaway, The Observer 

“Atmospheric illustrations… A very special story about the power of the imagination.”

— Parents in Touch

“You feel as though you were there. And you could be. Maybe.”

— Bookwitch

“This small independent publisher has taken on a big book – one that is magical and one that

celebrates other cultures, in this instance the Caribbean culture. In the story the reader is treated ta tale of magic adventure in the rainforest but is not quite sure whether the story is all in agrandmother’s imagination or a true adventure. Does it really matter? Probably not for theadventure takes us on a glorious journey through brightly coloured foresty jungle and into theheart of storytelling.”

— Louise Ellis‑Barrett, Armadillo Magazine

 

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“I doubt there’s a single KS1 or Nursery class that has not enjoyed So Much [by Trish Cooke] so is a great pleasure to recommend another title by the same award‑winning author. I would hazara guess that Look Back! will be just as popular with a slightly older readership at KS1 and earlyKS2…Let’s not forget the illustrations, which complement the telling perfectly – and we wouldexpect nothing less from the same hand that brought us Amazing Grace.”

— Angela Redfern, The School Librarian

“The relationship between Grannie and Christopher is beautifully portrayed by author andillustrator. It is a lovely book for sharing and reading aloud, with sound effects and repetition forteller and listener to enjoy.”

— Sue Mansfield, The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY)

“It is good to see something by Trish Cooke and it is good to see something by Caroline Binch anddoubly good to see them working together in this story drawn from a Dominican folk tale…Themystery and implied danger in Cooke’s story is nicely held in check by the realism of Binch’srichly detailed portraiture: and Binch’s affectionate rendering of the relationship between bothGranny and Christopher and granny as a girl and the old woman, Ma Constance, to whom shetakes food, implies a beneficent universe in which even the slightly scary Ti Bolom can be afriend.”

— Clive Barnes, Books for Keeps

ind out more about Trish Cooke at http://www.trishcooke.co.uk/ (http://www.trishcooke.co.uk/).

This entry was posted on Monday, February 24th, 2014 at 8:21 am and is filed underUncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leava response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to Day 24: Trish Cooke

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tadmack says:February 24, 2014 at 5:13 pmIt’s exciting to find books I haven’t heard of by author’s I haven’t read and know that there agood books coming to light in other places. I hope more of these cross over! Thank you, MCooke!

Reply28 Days Later Black History Month Featured Author Trish Cooke « says:February 25, 2014 at 11:22 am[…] Todayʹs honoree in the seventh annual 28 Days Later campaign, a Black History Montcelebration of children’s book creators of color, is Trish Cooke. […]

ReplyInterview: Author Trish Cooke – says:April 13, 2015 at 8:34 am[…] talked in an article for The Brown Bookshelf about how you were asked by Polly Pattull

of Papillote Press to retell a […]

Reply

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