One of our current favourite bedtime reads is Happy Hooves- Yuk! by Anna Bogie and illustrated by Rebecca Elliot. This is the third book in a brilliant series inspired by the Sapnish Countryside where Anna lives at the weekend. This is a story of friendship, inappropriate cooking and overcoming differences.
My children think this book is hilarious, the story clearly hits the right note with them. I’m a little concerned they think it somehow relates to them and my cooking abilities!
The book is nicely illustrated with a real retro feel which makes it stand out from the usual farm animal type books. Overall, its been a big hit, so I was thrilled when the author Anna Bogie offered to tell me how her kids inspired her writing:
How having kids inspires my writing- Anna Bogie
I’ve always loved writing but it wasn’t until I spent a lot of time with my (then) young nephews that I actually tried to make a career out of being a children’s author. I loved reading with my nephews, and adored the closeness and bond I had with them when we snuggled together with a good book. These feelings inspired me to start writing down the ideas that were floating in my head.
Being with children makes you look at the world through their eyes, and now, having three young children myself, I do this constantly. From the games we play, to the things that they ask about, they are little banks of inspiration – I might have to have some more babies so I can keep the bank filled up, although my hubby might not agree…!
Being serious, though, children have the most incredible, inquisitive, and imaginative minds. If I can just translate their thoughts onto paper, then I’ll have a bestseller – hopefully they won’t mind if I leave the copyright deeds to them?! I am always writing things down when I’m with children – little nuggets of genius from simple words that they make up (like ‘lasterday’ and ‘nextoday’), to what the moon is doing in the sky in the daytime, and why I have squirrels on my skin (my nephew confused squirrels with moles).
My latest book, ‘Happy Hooves, Yuk!’, was inspired by my son who was going through a ‘tricky eating’ phase. Sometimes I would (jokingly!) threaten disgusting meals if he wouldn’t eat what I had given him… slug and snails, mud pie etc… to this he would shout ‘Yuk!’ or ‘Bleugh!’ and in the end would giggle and be persuaded to try one bite of broccoli. This went on for quite a while and so when I came to write Yuk!, it didn’t take me very long at all as so much of it was already in my head.
My kids are my constant inspiration for writing, and my writing keeps me, vaguely, sane being a busy mum of three.
Happy Hooves, Yuk! is published by Fat Fox Books, £10.99 hardback
You can follow Anna on:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/abogieauthor/
Twitter – @ABogie
Instagram – @a.bogie
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