Children’s Book Award Blog Tour- Pablo and Splash, Roman Holiday by Sheena Dempsey

How does it feel to be nominated for the Children’s Book Award? This is the only book award that is voted on solely by children across the UK.

I didn’t realise that the FCBG award was the only award completely voted on by children until I read this question so I’m absolutely delighted to learn this. It’s so rewarding to know that children are genuinely enjoying my stories and it certainly makes the solitary months of writing and drawing in my attic studio all the more worthwhile.

Tell us more about your book.

Pablo and Splash are time-travelling Antarctic penguins who are polar opposites and best friends. But their annoying frenemy Benji (also a penguin) never believes their wild time travel stories. Benji demands PROOF in the form of a gladiator’s helmet from Ancient Rome, so to Rome they must go in their TimeBender. Things don’t go exactly to plan when they arrive, however, because Pablo and Splash are captured and brought to the emperor’s palace and imprisoned along with a gaggle of hysterical, captive birds. The motley crew headed up by Pablo and Splash are forced to go up against two of Rome’s fiercest gladiators in the Colosseum, Brutus and Magnus.

What do you hope that readers will take from reading your book?

I hope readers will be entertained and amused while reading this book and come away with an extra fact or two about Ancient Rome. I also hope they will bear in mind how long it takes me to make a graphic novel (9 months) so if they read it quickly they will consider reading it more than once.

Where do you find ideas and inspiration for your books?

Pablo and Splash go to a different period in history for every book so I find lots of inspiration and ideas when I start my research.

I ask myself: How would Pablo and Splash fare here? What could go wrong for them? What little nuggets can I pull from this time in history that I can weave into an Odd Couple story (of the time-travelling/penguin variety). It’s quite easy to think of ideas but it’s not always easy to think of good ideas, so I try my best not to go with my first ones. I have a lot more ideas when I am drawing and writing the rough pages. I find that making comics is an  improvisational process because the best ideas and jokes pop up as you go along, which for me makes the whole process so much more FUN than just writing with words only.

Are you working on anything exciting that you can tell us about?

I have just finished working on the latest Pablo and Splash adventure which is called Pablo and Splash: Viking Voyage. This book is very special to me because it’s set in Viking-era Ireland, which is where I’m from (except boringly I’m from the present day). I’m about to begin working on a brand new Pablo and Splash adventure which will see the pair time-travelling back to Ancient Egypt. I’m right at the beginning/research stage of the process for that book so I’m finding out all about tombs, hieroglyphics, death masks and pyramids. Because I definitely wasn’t a history buff in school, it’s quite fun to research as it’s often brand new information to me. Due to my advancing years, the moment I’ve finished writing the book most of this information falls out of my head immediately to make room for new research. Children’s brains are far better at permanently absorbing information than adults’ so it’s important to learn as much as you can while you are young.

What advice would you give children keen to be an author or illustrator in the future?