The Story Thief by Graham Carter
When we were building the theme of “Sail Away in a Story”, we knew we wanted to include The Story Thief in our plans. It has a sound basis in reading and sailing and is delightful to read aloud. We were thrilled to share copies of this book with our member groups. Author-illustrator Graham Carter shares a bit more about this book with us in his guest blog.
I like to think of The Story Thief as being a companion piece to my first author-illustrated book Otto Blotter Bird Spotter. They both involve a relationship between inquisitive, adventure-minded children and a rather large out of place creature. Whilst the location of Otto is largely based in the woods, I wanted The Story Thief to stand out by being set in an opposite looking setting. So, the seaside dictated the story in a way. Traditional authors probably start with the story first and branch out from there, but being an illustrator first and foremost I wanted to visualise the location and characters first and think of scenes I’d have fun drawing and grow the story from there.
The idea for the story thief began as quite a literal concept early on. It became a game between myself and my (then toddler) son Noah, where I would start reading him a story and he would run past giggling and steal the book from my hands over and over again. From this point the story took many different forms. In order to avoid confusion with The Book Thief book I tried to have the creature (a floaty ghost-like creature) steal all forms of story from the little town (“from playground chatter to bus-stop natter”), slowly draining away all the colour and vibrancy from the town. The island inhabitants became quite zombie-like and all the colour and visual story elements became a part of the creature. Although I was a little apprehensive to lose this way of doing it, it became clear that stealing physical books would be a bit easier for little ones to understand (and easier to draw!) and underline the importance of reading in a more impactful way.
The ghost-like creature evolved into an octopus-like one because we felt he would fit more naturally into the environment. Having 8 legs also made him far more suitable for thieving! There was something inherently amusing about a giant, clumsy octopus trying to be subtle in the way he moved silently around the town like a ninja to steal the books. Would love to see that animated!
One of the driving forces behind both of my story books has largely been a desire to get my children away from screens; a problem a great deal of parents are wrestling with on a daily basis I imagine. This is why Otto Blotter Bird Spotter is centred around a boy loving the great outdoors and exploring the natural world around him, and The Story Thief is about a girl with a great imagination and a fierce love of reading, who discovers she has learned real-world skills from her books along the way. My hope is they will encourage children to see and appreciate the wonder of the world around them and not rely too heavily on the tablet. Easier said I know!
The Story Thief was a fun book to make, and being an illustrator who loves detail I couldn’t resist hiding little elements in there. From myself and my family, to nods to previous books and print work, to famous movies and even some little book covers that my son created! Something for the beady-eyed viewer to try and spot. All in all though I hope the readers are encourage to explore the magic of books for themselves and have an adventure or two of their own.
The Story Thief is written and illustrated by Graham Carter, published by Andersen Press and is available from your favourite retailer.
