But one day some wicked words stuck in the mother’s throat and all she could do was scribble a request…

It over to you M and J,
I need a story from you today
I’ve got this “Write your Own Story Book”
Here… will you give it a look?

The eldest child shrugged her shoulders and scrunched up her face like a cold, wet flannel. “Do I have to?”

“This is not a twist the tale was meant to take,” thought the mother.

Fortunately the youngest child (appropriately fair haired, blue eyed and eager to appear angelic) went straight for a pot of pens; she saw a satisfyingly sweet-and-sour chance to get one over on her sibling.

No, it’s mine!
No, I want to write a story!
No, you can only write your name!
No, I’ve got lots of ideas!
No, give ME the pens!
No! NO! NOOOOO!

As if by magic (I do so hope our home is full of fairies and djinns) the Write Your Own Story Book turned into treasure worth fighting over! Fortunately this chunky book was built to withstand some rough and tumble, and as it fell out of the children’s hands onto the table a new spell was cast from its pages, netting the children and drawing them in.

Ideas were suddenly spilling out, bubbling over, seeping across the pages, the table, into pens and pencils and up through arms, even emerging as flickering smiles on the faces of the children. “Where on Earth?“, “Whose story is it?“, “Happily ever after?“, “Whodunnit?“. The book had transformed into a firework shop with ideas to spark stories. Words whispered different plot ideas, different ways of telling a story, different places to find inspiration.

Part secret journal, part recipe collection, the Write Your Own Story Book mixed excitement with promise with figments of the imagination. M wrote, J spoke, and both wove, pulling in and plaiting seams from stories they’d heard elsewhere and stories that emerged from a surprising, complex world seemingly deep behind their flashing eyes.

And the higgledy-piggled pile of letters that had jarred fast in the mother’s throat slipped sweet and loose like honey, warmed by crackling ideas and story embers as she listened to her daughters.

It was a good supper time.

It was a good story time.

Having not written a story in over 22 years, Usborne’s Write your Own Story Book seduced me into trying my hand at telling a tale for today’s post. I’m very grateful to poet and translator Elli for her encouragement and comments on an earlier draft. Elli writes very beautifully indeed – do check out her poems on her blog, Taking Words for a Stroll. Of course, any lack of finesse in my storytelling today is my responsibility alone.

and shortly…

Shhhh! Make sure no-one is looking over your shoulder as I reveal to you……

…Operation Alphabet.

Previously highly classified, this action packed tale of derring-do has now been sanctioned for release to a few, highly trusted readers. This story is for your eyes only.

This is the tale of one young boy, named Charlie Foxtrot (a great code name, don’t you agree?), who succumbs to a terrible case of the Alphabet-A-Heebiegeebies.

At school Charlie is due to be tested on his knowledge of the alphabet but is struggling with his ABCs. But all is not lost – this is a perfect case for the clandestine department known as the Ministry of Letters (responsible for creating all the words you and I read each day – just imagine their POWER!).

The SAS (that’s Special Alphabet Service, by the way – not those imposters that call themselves the Special Air Service) swing into action to save Charlie Foxtrot from a terrible fate, although along the way the lives of the SAS themselves are threatened… But with the help of a Royal relative and an all singing-all-dancing Capital display, the SAS save the day. The Ministry of Letters succeeds in its top secret mission and remain ready and waiting for their next call to arms…

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With Operation Alphabet Al MacCuish (the author), Jim Bletsas (the designer) and Luciano Lozano (the illustrator) have created a debut picture book which has it all. Mystery, adventure, silly songs, opportunities to hum your favourite film and tv music and put on terrible accents, and bags and bags of panache.

The pacey plot, full of intrigue, is a huge hit with my kids (they adore the idea of being let in on a secret they mustn’t share), and it’s a while since I’ve had as much fun reading a book aloud; for those of us with a penchant for drama and tom-foolery this book is a dream to share. Like the Traction Man stories of Mini Grey, I couldn’t help but read this with a terrible attempt at a Sean Connery voice, occasionally breaking into snatches of James Bond or the A-Team theme music.

The book as a physical object is also a lovely thing to hold. Lozano’s illustrations are a homage to the best of 1960s design, in browns and oranges that exude vintage class (I was immediately reminded of this recent post on the wonderful blog Vintage Kids’ Books my Kid Loves). The hardback book, at 64 pages long, with a beautiful dust jacket that doubles as an alphabet poster, is sumptuous to look at and to hold – an ideal gift.

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Initially I had my doubts about the theme of the book (learning the alphabet) and its target audience (this is a perfect picture book for slightly older kids, say 4-8); the text is quite long for a picture book, the illustrations (whilst wonderful) are not typical kiddie fare and so I wondered if older children who are already well past the stage of learning to write the alphabet would still enjoy this book. But I need not have worried – the 7 year olds I’ve read it to (all of whom are happy reading and writing by themselves) have loved the story, it’s humour, and the secrecy that surrounds it. Just like them I will never look at a letter box in the same light again.

Inspired by the SAS who parachute in to Charlie’s room to help him learn the alphabet we created our own parachuting set of letters.

Here’s what we used:

We basically followed the instructions in this youtube clip, but substituted alphabet magnets for toy soldiers:

Once our SAS detail was ready, we launched them out of the windows upstairs in our house:

We were launching our parachutes until dark –> definitely a great activity to try out with or without kids, the hardest thing being finding a high enough launch site.

Whilst making our parachutes we listened to:

My go-to source for great children’s music, Zooglobble, has this great list of alphabet themed children’s songs, many of which will appeal hugely to adults too!

Other activities that would be fun to do alongside reading Operation Alphabet include:

Now don’t forget, everything you’ve read here today is TOP SECRET. Do not share your knowledge of The Ministry of Letters and the SAS with anyone. Remember:

And if you can keep this secret, come back tomorrow when I have an amazing giveaway bundle of Operation Alphabet artefacts….

One, Two, Three, Me by Nadia Budde is a board book for the pre-school / nursery crowd. It is a quirky take on the “learn about the world around you” type of book with an exploration of colours, shapes, weather, locations, clothes, sizes and emotions/characteristics. Told in rhyme with naive, childlike drawings that reminded me a little both of Finnish illustrator Hannamari Ruohonen and Dutch illustrator Babette Harms, this is not your average toddler learning book, and is so much more fun for all that.

The choice of vocabulary is interesting (eg “gigantic, average, wee” when talking about size, or “spotted, plaid, pale” when talking about colours and patterns), and the animals modelling the cloths / locations / emotions etc are unusual: you’ll meet boars, cockroaches, rats, moose and a gnu!

The unusual lexical and illustrative choices made by Nadia Budde ensured that was this book inherently more interesting to read than many of its ilk. Whilst I wouldn’t be surprised if some parents felt happier with a more conventional approach, for example Kali Stileman’s Big Book of My World (which I reviewed here), the slightly anarchic slant taken by this book meant I loved reading it aloud, my enjoyment came across to J, and she too discovered a new book to love.

So now for a slightly geeky diversion, if you’re interested in translation. As a rhyming book, and a book where there is a close connection between the text and the images I was curious to find out how it had been translated.

Nadia Budde’s book is called Eins Zwei Drei Tier (One Two Three Animal) in the original German. A little rooting around has shown that not only has the translation been creative, Nadia Budde also must have redrawn some of the images for the English language version. Here are some images from the original book side by side with the corresponding images from the translated version.

German and English frontcovers. Note the different animal at the end of the row.

"In bed, at the window, at the table, fish" vs English language version

"Blonde, black, bald, Jackal" vs English language version

I’d love to know more about the process that went on here – the conversations between writer/illustrator, translator and publisher. If you’re a writer/illustrator and have ever had to make such substantial changes to a book of yours, in order for it to be published in another language, I’d love to hear about it.

But moving on…

J loves to rhyme so it seemed very natural for us to make our own sing-song version of One, Two, Three, Me. J came up with the rhymes and then illustrated them for her own book about her world. Here’s her poem in full:

MY WORLD

Ewan, Alfie, Molly, Dolly

In a dress, in a t-shirt, in a cloak, what a joke!

triangle, semi-circle, square, chair

in the clouds, in the sun, in the light, bike

Ginormous, medium, teeny, what a meanie

red, blonde, black, sack

filled with snacks, filled with bread, filled with presents, elephant

trumpetty-trump, raa, moo, you!

I gave her prompts for each line but J had tremendous fun “filling in the blanks” and especially coming up with the rhymes. Whilst not the most detailed of books, she’s tremendously proud of it and it’s become a favourite to read together at bedtime alongside the original which inspired it.

Whilst helping J make her book we listened to:

Other activities which might work well alongside reading One, Two, Three, Me include:

Can you recommend any picture books that are particularly interesting from the translation point of view? Books that posed particular problems for translation, but that were nevertheless translated successfully?