Can we ditch Boris and have Cressida Cowell instead? - Kelly McCaughrain

If you happened to see my shameless namedropping on Twitter yesterday, you’ll know that I managed to blag my way into the ceremony announcing the new UK Children’s Laureate, Cressida Cowell, held at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. (I know! The potential for embarassing fangirling is endless.)

Rabbit in the literary headlights

So here’s the lowdown:

First, this place is fantastic. I’d never been to the Globe and it’s beautiful. It doesn’t feel like you’re in London, it feels like a historical theme park (a very convincing one) in rural England. The Laureate ceremony was in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, an intimate and beautiful space that I’d love to see a play in. 

Diana Gerald, CEO of BookTrust

The seating was randomly allocated, and I walked in to find I was sitting RIGHT NEXT TO MICHAEL ROSEN! Did I have the nerve to speak to him? I did not. I restrained my inner fangirl and didn’t disturb him. But he was great, giving huge whoops for both the outgoing and incoming laureates. And when Lauren Child’s PowerPoint clicker failed, he said, ‘Never use PowerPoints’. So there you go, good advice from a former laureate.

In her opening speech, Diana Gerald, CEO of BookTrust, said the role of the laureate was “not just an honour and not exactly a job” but involves a “commitment to share the joy and inspiration of children’s books, creativity and reading and to remind adults occasionally that children’s books really really matter.”

I do think adults need to be reminded of that and I’ve written before on this blog about how children’s literature gets less media coverage, fewer reviews and less respect generally than books for adults. Apart from the obvious societal benefits of raising readers (who, as Cressida Cowell later pointed out in her speech, make smarter, more empathetic citizens), if publishers and bookshops are facing falling profits because people aren’t reading as much, then childhood reading is surely the place to start fixing that. It’s much easier to convince a six-year-old of the joy of stories than a stressed out, busy 30-year-old. So start there.

Then we had a speech from outgoing laureate, Lauren Child. Her speech was as beautifully funny, whacky and full of the unexpected as her books. Her laureateship has been about allowing ourselves to focus on the small things. To daydream, to do nothing, to be bored. And I think that was brave, to be handed such a big role and make it about little things. As a terminal-case daydreamer and starer-into-space myself, I found this wonderfully reassuring and I’m sure she’s inspired many children and adults in the last two years to allow their inner daydreamer out.

Lauren Child

Reviewing her two years as laureate, she admitted she was anxious and intimidated when asked to take on the role, but said, that ‘yes is usually a better answer than no’. Wise words.

She then talked about what it is about stories that supports us and appeals to us. She said that we are just stories, and collections of stories from people around us, stories of our fears, funny stories, scarring stories. These are our bones and where our ideas come from as writers. But you need time to access them and put the fragments together or you can’t be creative and write books.

So we need time to think about nothing, to be bored, to not seek constant distraction. She said that a large part of the process of writing stories is just staring out the window and that we should allow ourselves to do that. To not be absorbed in our phones when walking to work or to school. To see what’s around you instead.

She also said that you don’t have to be good at something to enjoy it or learn from it and that illustration is an empathetic artform because you have to observe other people and think about why they look they way they do, why they move the way they do etc. So even if you can’t draw, it’s worth trying illustration because of what you’ll learn from it. I liked that idea because isn’t that the soul of creativity? And often the hardest part of writing? The fear of doing something you might not be good at?

She then handed over to Deborah Texeira, deputy headteacher and part of the laureateship steering group, who talked about how powerful books can be in a child’s development and how important libraries are for children whose families have no spare money for books, a situation her own family was in when they came to Britain as refugees.

Deborah then announced the new UK Children’s Laureate – Cressida Cowell, who ran on stage like a mad thing and was obviously SO thrilled to be there. 

Medal presentation from Lauren Child (who was wearing FABULOUS shoes, btw)

Her speech, which I found very inspiring was centred on two key messages:

1. Books and reading are magic.
2. This magic must be made available to everyone.

She talked about the competition books face from TV and movies and how books can develop magical powers in a reader that TV can’t. TV is very visual and bossy and tells you what everything looks like. A book requires you to imagine and participate in the story and bring it to life. Reading literally changes your brain.

(Of course the headlines today are ‘Cressida Cowell wants to take on TV’, although actually that was just a small part of her speech. Most of it was about libraries and how reading makes us better people but that’s not as sexy, I guess.)

She said that reading develops three vital qualities in children – intelligence, creativity and empathy and that although all three powers are necessary, empathy is maybe the most important because “without empathy you’re just a highly intelligent, creative villain.”

Empathy is something I feel very passionate about and that I’ve been planning to write more about in the coming months (more on that later) so I was really pleased to hear both Cressida Cowell and Lauren Child mention it. As Cressida said, on TV things happen ‘out there’. In a book they happen inside you.

Cressida quoted research that shows that if you read for the joy of it you’re more likely to be happier, healthier, more likely to vote, own your own home, and less likely to go to prison, and that all these statistics apply no matter what socio-economic class you come from. It’s a bedrock of society and we can’t stress its importance enough.

But the magic isn’t getting to everyone. Librarians are disappearing, bookshops are closing, kids are playing video games, review space is shrinking and parents are knackered. So Cressida has made a giant impossible To Do list. Ten kids came on stage to hold up placards to illustrate her list and each of the points got a round of applause.

Children have the right to:

1. Read for the joy of it (“Books should be sweets not brussel sprouts!” Yes!)
2. Access NEW books in schools, libraries and bookshops
3. Have advice from a trained librarian or bookseller
4. Own their OWN book
5. See themselves reflected in a book
6. Be read aloud to
7. Put a book down if they're not enjoying it (Yes, you can.)
8. Be creative for at least 15 minutes a week
9. See an author event at least ONCE (“Authors bring the magic to life” Why, thank you.)
10. Have a planet to read on (Cressida is passionate about environmental issues and applauded Greta Thunberg, and said we can learn from children because children know that the most important problem facing us is environmental, while adults get caught up in the little things.)

For her laureateship she’s going to try to do ALL of this (brave woman) but will focus on two things:

1. Campaigning that school libraries should be statutory and campaigning for public libraries
2. Children should be allowed to be creative for at least 15 minutes a week

I was interested to see just how many of the laureates have focused on supporting libraries. They’ve probably all been involved in that to some degree and some have made it a major point and I’m sure they’ve all done a lot of good and yet it’s still very necessary, which suggests that the politicians aren’t listening. I hope that will change.  

Cressida made the point that the creative industries make £101 billion for this country, outperforming the rest of the economy by double. (I did not know this.) We export more books than any other country in the world and this is our only export of which this is true. So it follows that there should be more creative space in the curriculum.

She’s been promoting a practical campaign she started last year with the National Literacy Trust called Free Writing Friday. Kids are given a special book where for 15 mins every week they can write whatever they want and the teacher can’t mark it. As she explained this, the kids on stage looked utterly thrilled by the idea. One little girl’s jaw just dropped open, it was so cute. So she’s going to draw up practical plans to introduce this into schools as part of the laureateship.

She finished by saying that adults learn from children’s lack of prejudice, hopefulness, constant questioning and belief in the impossible. They “are the most creative people in the world because they don’t know the rules yet” and we need every ounce of intelligence, creativity and empathy to come up with solutions to the political and scientific challenges we’re facing.

And after that it was just drinks on the very fancy Globe balcony, chatting to writers and publishers and generally Cinderella-ing it up until the FlyBe pumpkin ride back to Belfast. 

Chris Riddell - he is the loveliest guy

Liz Canning of BookTrust and Alex T Smith. Comparing school visit stories, Alex told us he was once asked by a school kid, 'What did you do in the war?'

Axel Scheffler, who kindly let me take a picture for my Gruffalo obsessed nephews

View from the balcony. I felt like the Queen.

 

So I had a fantastic day, and I have no doubt that Cressida Cowell will be an energetic and inspiring laureate and I’m looking forward to seeing what she’ll get up to!

She's lovely but she makes me look like a giant!

But it's OK, Philip Ardagh makes me look tiny. And like I have bunny ears.

Kelly McCaughrain is the author of the Children's Books Ireland Book of the Year,  

Flying Tips for Flightless Birds. 

She blogs about Writing, Gardening and VW Campervanning at weewideworld.blogspot.co.uk 

@KMcCaughrain