FCBG Children’s Book Award Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the Children’s Book Award Blog Tour! 

The Children’s Book Award is the only national award for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children. It is owned and coordinated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and is highly respected by teachers, parents and librarians. It has brought acclaim and strong sales to past winners such as J.K. Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton, Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and Michael Morpurgo, who has won a record four times. The award has often been the first to recognise the future stars of children’s fiction and has the ability to turn popular authors into bestsellers.

Today, I am delighted to share a blog from Rob Biddulph all about his shortlisted title, The Blue-Footed Booby, published by Harper Collins Children’s Books.

I first saw a photograph of a blue-footed booby about ten years ago, and straight away knew that at some point I would write a book about one. They are just the most extraordinary looking animals – full of character, with a great expression in the eyes, a fabulously comical walk, and, of course, those feet. Perfect picture book fare! But what, I wondered, could my story be about? 

Well, it had to involve the feet. That much I knew. They are, after all, the blue-footed booby’s most distinctive feature, and their particular shade of cyan is a relatively unusual colour in nature so it should definitely be made the most of. That’s when it hit me: BLUE FOOTPRINTS! This book needed to be covered with them! But why would there be footprints and who would be interested in following them? That’s when I did a bit of research and, to my delight, discovered that there was also a species of booby that had red feet. Suddenly I had my antagonists. It would be blue versus red! And that’s when the entire story began to tumble out of me like a rhyming waterfall – I think it’s the quickest I’ve ever written a picture book text! 

I decided that something would mysteriously go missing, and the only clue as to its disappearance would be a trail of bright blue footprints. So, naturally, the blue-footed booby would become the chief suspect. I instinctively knew that the sillier this story was the better it would be, so I decided to make all red-footed boobies expert bakers. They would be famous for their excellent iced buns, doughnuts and swiss rolls, and it would be these cakes that got stolen. I then came up with a catchy refrain that would serve as a ‘chorus’, and inserted a few fun twists and turns towards the end of the book. I also decided, importantly, to name the greediest booby of all after my mother-in-law. So thank you, Barbara, for lending me your name and subsequently allowing me to tell the whole world how much you like eating. 

Once the words were written, it was time to think about the artwork. I wanted the colours red and blue to do most of the heavy lifting, so decided to limit my colour palette to just those two plus black. That would make the graphic footprints really stand out and give the whole book a stylish feel. The only exception would be the cakes. They would be rendered in full colour to make them look as delicious as possible. The whole thing was a slight departure from my usual style – more sketchy and inky – and as such was hugely enjoyable and freeing to paint, which I think comes across in the illustrations. 

I have to say, I’m thrilled with the final book. I love its aforementioned silliness, but I also think the message underpinning the story about not jumping to conclusions cuts through nicely. I’m also pleased that the children voting for the FCBG Children’s Book Award have seen fit to include it in their top ten books of the year. What an honour! Huge and sincere thanks to everyone who has voted for it so far. I would never have thought a book about baking boobies, missing cakes, and red herrings would resonate with so many people. Truth be told, given the calibre of the other books in the top ten I’d be surprised if my book won, but, to quote the last line of the story, ‘life is full of surprises’. So fingers crossed…

Who will win? Children nationwide are now invited to vote for their favourite of the ten shortlisted books. The deadline for online voting is 12 noon on Friday 12th May.  The category winners and the author of the best children’s book published in the 2022 nomination period will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony which takes place in Central London on Saturday 10th June, and will be live-streamed.

Vote online here – www.fcbg.org.uk/childrens-book-award-2023/. 

Don’t forget to check out the fabulous posts from the other bloggers taking part in the tour: