Once Upon a Time… The Story Behind the Story.

‘Too Snappy to Wear a Nappy’ from inspiration to publication.

Dear reader,

Before I begin, for those of you across the water (so we don’t get lost in translation) ‘nappy’ is UK English for ‘diaper’. 

Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time in the summer of 2018, a little boy toddles up to his mother, feet padding on the bare floorboards. He clutches a navy blue pillow to his chest, a nappy taped to its middle. 

“Look Maman! The penguin’s wearing a nappy!” He chortles with delight.

The little boy is my son and nappies and potty’s were hot topics in our house at that time, so I was unsurprised, if a little amused, at the creative way in which he had woven the subject into his play.

“That’s so funny! A nappy on a penguin?! Have you ever seen a giraffe wearing a nappy?” I ask him

“No! Don’t be silly Maman! That’s too funny!”

So we sat down together and I started to draw…

The penguin didn’t make the final cut but the giraffe did and the story we wrote together became the book: ‘Too Snappy to Wear a Nappy’ and the key to our child-led approach to potty learning. 

Original sketches

Mini dummy book

Balancing Act

Thankfully, with the aid of this fantastical tale, the nappy milestone quickly became a  distant memory. Life swallowed up the project for a while as design work, screen printing and music tours (while simultaneously figuring out a way to create with a child by my side) took centre stage.

Throughout this time a burgeoning appreciation (and dare I say obsession) for picture books began to emerge. I recognised how growing up in a family of artists, words and pictures were a constant companion and the process of combining the two together came naturally to me.

So I read and looked and sketched and wrote every day in all those stolen moments of quiet. I joined The Goodship Illustration ‘Fly Your Freak Flag’ course with

Helen Stephens

,

Katie Chappell

and Tania Willis. And in my one day a week of uninterrupted time to create, I revisited the nappy story and wrote and illustrated ‘Too Snappy to Wear a Nappy’.

Artwork roughs, textured brushes, colour palette

From Nappy Mile Stone to Picture Book Dream

The pivotal moment came in 2023 when I entered ‘Too Snappy to Wear a Nappy’ into the dPictus Unpublished Picturebook Showcase. This is a genius initiative which enables unpublished books to be seen by publishers from around the world and if successful displayed at Bologna International Children’s Book Fair.

I was delighted at being chosen and used the opportunity to directly contact the list of UK publishers in advance of the fair. I was thrilled when David Bennett, owner of UK publisher Boxer Books (a partner of American publishing house Union Square), called me straight back with an offer for ‘Too Snappy to Wear a Nappy’.

The offer came with a caveat of exclusivity and they asked me to withdraw my book from the showcase. New to the world of picture books, I was unsure of the best course of action so I joined the Association of Illustrators and reached out to as many contacts as I could for advice. I received an offer from a wonderful Scottish agent but decided to sign the two book deal directly with Boxer Books as intuitively I was drawn to David’s exuberance and enthusiasm.

Dummy book I sent to dPictus

Can you break the rules if you don’t know them?

My journey to published picture book author/illustrator isn’t a conventional one and I perhaps did everything one is advised against (submitting a ‘complete’ book rather than example spreads/cover/text, writing in rhyme, using words particular to UK English and working without an agent!) but having never studied illustration/art or English, I wasn’t even aware I was breaking the ‘rules’... which perhaps gives my work a freshness and integrity that in the end helped it to stand out.

Final artwork in progress/studio

messy studio tour of final gouache paintings and me with the crazed look of someone trying to meet a deadline 😜

Lost in Translation

The published book remains very close to the original ‘dummy’. However, there was one major challenge! The title of the book was particular to the UK (‘Too Snappy to Wear a Nappy’) and written in rhyme. Working closely with the ever supportive David and Leilani at Boxer Books we came up with an alternative American title (‘Would you Dare put a Diaper on a Bear?’) and rhyme scheme around ‘diaper’. This involved a different book cover for each edition and alternative wording but the interior illustrations largely remained the same.

Cover artwork UK edition

Cover artwork US edition

Inside spreads UK edition

And here we are barely two months post publication and the hardback edition has sold out!

I am full of gratitude that I have been welcomed into a profession where my heart's desire meets one of the world's greatest needs: For ‘Reading for Pleasure is the single most important indicator of a child’s future success’ (OECD, 2002). What could be more rewarding than making books for the very youngest of enquiring minds?

‘Too Snappy to Wear a Nappy’ is out now. Visit your local bookshop and snap up one of the last hard back copies, if you can!