I recently blogged about how children’s books have historically reflected times of crisis and change – you can read that blog post here.
I said that I didn’t think I consciously reflected global events when conceiving or writing my books – partly because I write for very young children who are fairly oblivious to the outside world, and partly because the lead-time on books is so long (we often start working on them 18 months ahead of publication) that books just can’t be responsive in that way.
However, it turns out that isn’t true! Never believe what I say!
Because Peekaboo Love, just out, was the first book I’ve conceived, written and commissioned in lockdown and was 100% my conscious response to what we were all going through in March last year. And are still going through now, sadly.
So, it doesn’t mention covid, or show anyone in a mask, but as you’ll have seen from the video, it’s full of characters hugging and kissing each other. While I know that, because of social distancing, children can’t cuddle their grandparents and wider family, they are able to do so with their mums and dads and brothers and sisters. And with all the anxiety and sadness around us, that is exactly what I thought we all needed – an unapologetically adorable celebration of families, friendship and love.
As ever, Ingela P Arrhenius‘s magical illustrations brought our mechanism ideas to life and Magenta Fox’s brilliant layouts made it work seamlessly.
I hope it brings people a little joy during these challenging times.
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Peekaboo Love – from the bestselling creators of the Felt Flaps series, Camilla Reid and Ingela P Arrhenius – is out now. You can order a copy from Waterstones here, Bookshop.org here, and Amazon here.
