IT’S BEHIND YOU!!

Giving young readers a sense of empowerment in picture books

I am thrilled to be sharing this piece from Catherine Cawthorne about her newly published title, Oh No Flo! a funny, charming picturebook perfect for sharing as we enter into April which is also National Pet month!

Young children can spend a lot of their time feeling that they’re not very good at things. It’s hard to learn to read and write, it’s hard to put socks on (and don’t get me started on tights), it’s hard to catch a ball, it’s hard to listen, it’s hard to paint a picture without accidentally getting paint all over everything in a 3 metre radius of the paintbrush. And, frustratingly, grown-ups seem to do these things effortlessly.

So it’s no surprise that children love the feeling that they know something that someone else doesn’t. That they are in on the joke. That they can understand what’s going on when someone else can’t. Think of the joy of the pantomime. Why do we all love shouting “IT’S BEHIND YOU!” It’s because we know, we’ve spotted it, and the character on the stage hasn’t a clue. We can see what’s coming. We know more than the grown-up for once.

I think this is often the joy of books where the words and illustrations are each telling a different story, and the reader is left to spot what’s really happening. The reader is assumed to be clever enough to work things out for themselves. Let’s think about this classic moment in I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen:

Taken from Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back

We know that the bear’s hat is red and triangle shaped. We know that the rabbit is lying and is brazenly wearing the hat right in front of the bear. But at this point, the bear doesn’t notice. In fact, he is extremely polite to the rabbit and carries on his search. This is such a joyful moment for the reader – we have noticed, we have worked it out, and most importantly, we know more than the bear!

Or how about the wonderful Here Be Giants by Susannah Lloyd and Paddy Donnelly? The “hero” of the book - a hapless knight, who hasn’t got a clue what’s going on – spends the book looking for a giant without realising that he’s actually climbing up the giant’s leg and is about to be eaten in an enormous sandwich:

We can see exactly what is going on in the illustrations, but the poor knight has no idea. The reader has all the knowledge; the “hero” has none. This is the empowering feeling that I wanted to give to children listening to Oh No, Flo!  

The concept for Oh No, Flo! started with the idea that it would be funny to have a story where the central character is given a list of instructions, and then muddles them all up. In my first drafts of Oh No Flo! I had various characters – a young farm hand, a St Bernard dog, a cat – all messing things up, but the premise was the same. A list of jobs on the farm, all with a simple verb followed by noun construction, such as milk the cow or sow the corn. 

The reader would know what they were supposed to be doing, and then could laugh along as the character got it all wrong. The reader would be thinking the picture book equivalent of “IT’S BEHIND YOU!” whilst the central character bumbled along unwittingly. When I finally created the lovely, well-meaning sheepdog Flo, it all fell into place.

There is so much warmth to a character who means well, and is kind, but just can’t seem to get things right. I am a huge fan of the Hundred Acre Wood, and I think Flo has a lot of Winnie-the-Pooh tendencies. (The fact that the other day I started wiping our kitchen table with a tortilla wrap instead of a dishcloth probably means that I have a lot of Flo tendencies!) So the combination of humour, empowerment and warmth seemed just right.

I have had the pleasure of reading Oh No, Flo! to lots of children in the past few weeks. We all shout “Oh No, Flo!” together, often doing a faceplant mime at the same time. There is so much joy and laughter when she gets the tasks muddled up and starts milking the pig and sowing the sheep. I am sure that at least part of this enjoyment is the fact that it feels good to know what’s happening. To feel cleverer than Flo, and to understand what she’s doing wrong.

We all need a boost of self-confidence sometimes, and young children need that just as much, if not more, than anybody else.

Oh No, Flo! by Catherine Cawthorne, illustrated by Mike Byrne, published by Templar Books, paperback, £7.99