The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom by Emily-Jane Clark
This new series by Emily-Jane Clark is sure to delight readers and have them giggling through the adventure. When given the chance to read the book and send some questions to the author, we jumped at the chance. Read on for the fantastic answers about vampire sheep and Knobbly Bottom!
Where did the idea come from to write about vampire sheep?
When I was about nine years old my parent FORCED me to move from an estate in town to the countryside because they said it was a safer place to bring up children. But just like my main character, Maggie says, I thought ‘I don’t have any children so I don’t care about that’.
Anyway, I hated it. There were no lifts with pressy buttons, no parks and NO big Tesco at the end of the road. Just loads of boring old fields and sheep! And i was convinced these sheep were giving me dirty looks as if to say ’you don’t belong here!” Year later, when I moved to the countryside with my own children it brought all these memories back! So, I decided to write a story about what would have happened if those sheep HAD been evil!
What can we hope to see from future books set in Knobbly Bottom?
Unfortunately, in book two, poor old Knobbly Bottom has a zombie pig problem… and they are very, very hungry! There are also lots more weird and wonderful people living in the village that readers will get to meet!
What would you want readers to say about your book when recommending it?
That it made them laugh! I hope it is a book that parents will enjoy as well as their kids!
As a debut children’s author, was there anything you learned that surprised you about writing and publishing for children?
It is harder than I thought it would be! I stupidly assumed it would be easier than writing for adults… Trying to figure out how to defeat beasts in a child-friendly way (basically without actually killing or injuring them!) was quite a challenge! My lovely agent had to stop me going full Buffy The Vampire Slayer on several occasions!
Writing a children’s book is also very much a team effort! I really enjoyed the process of working with editors and illustrators to make the finished product as good as it could be! I also discovered that people who work in children’s publishing are the NICEST people in the world!
The mix of characters is excellent- how did you decide who your cast of characters would be?
Coming up with the characters was my favourite part of the writing process! It was so much fun. I started with Maggie! She was such a strong voice in my head – and she really wanted to tell her story! Then as she explored the village the others came into my head!
I originally had way too many characters, but in the end I only kept the ones who added something to the story. However, I have saved them for future books!
If you could cast your characters using celebrities, who would you envision?
Good question! I would love to turn it into a TV show one day! Nan Helsing would have to be Julie Walters! Gary the Great and Evil child eater would be Paul Whitehouse and the mum, Lucy would be Ellie Taylor. I am not sure about Maggie – that is a tough one BUT if I could go back in time and get Karen from Outnumbered to do it – she would be perfect!
The Beasts of Knobbly Bottom Attack of the Vampire Sheep is written by Emily-Jane Clark and illustrated by Jeff Crowther It is published by Scholastic.