Episode 44 - Recharging our batteries with Molly Harris' new book Whirby

We talk to author Molly Harris about her new picture book Whirby, illustrated by Jacob Souva. Whirby is a robot and his favourite activity at school is bot battles, but in his excitement about getting ready he forgets to get any rest and recharge his batteries and when it comes to his turn in the competition he has no energy left. Can he recover and do what he really enjoys?

A great book for bedtimes with lots to look at in the pictures.

You can find out more about Molly Harris here and read Jacob's substack here.

Molly's other books are:

The Big Squeeze, illustrated by Alison Hawkins

I Need Space, illustrated by Jon Corby (out Dec 2026)

And the book Molly recommended was

Benita and the Night Creatures, by Mariana Llanos, illustrated by Cocoretto

Transcript

Katy 0:11

Hi, I'm Katy

Ali 0:12

And I'm Ali and welcome to Mosty Book Talk.

Katy 0:15

In this episode, we are talking picture books. We have an interview with the author Molly Harris about her new book, Whirby, and we also chat about a few new books that have caught our eye.

Ali 0:28

We're very pleased to have with us the author Molly Harris, who published her second picture book at the end of March. Her first book, The Big Squeeze, came out in 2024, and her latest one is called Whirby, and it's illustrated by Jacob Souva. So welcome, Molly. You're originally a technical writer, which I think means you write manuals and explain us for software. And you grew up in Massachusetts but now live in Ireland. So give us a quick overview of how you became a picture book author.

Molly 0:55

Yeah, absolutely. So that is true. I am a technical writer for my day job, which that's precisely what it is, writing somewhat dry documentation explaining software. And while that is a great day job, it's when you're creative inside, like me, you're looking for another outlet. And so I had studied English in college. I was always like a young writer, writing stories when I was growing up. And then as I was reaching my late 20s, I felt very detached from that side of me. And I was just like a worker bee. And I wanted to get back in touch with that. What do I want to write? I'd kind of always written like secretly, but never showing it to anybody. And so I thought, okay, I have to be brave and put something out there. What do I want to write about? Everything that I, if I was to think of like really favorite books, it was always when I was younger. And I think I was always very drawn to children's literature and like very fond of thinking about the books that I loved growing up. And so I think that's where I was drawn. But I thought I would go more into middle grade or YA. And so I had started to write that. And then as I was working on some manuscripts there, I had a baby, my first baby. And that's then, oh, I'm picking up some of my old favorite books for his library, like Where the Wild Things Are and Good Night Moon. And just going, yeah, these are bangers. Like these so good. And that type of language was getting back into my head. Like I hadn't picked up a picture book in so long. But then I was finding the stories that were in my head were starting to come out a little bit more in that short form. And when I had my first child, it was the very start of COVID. It was early 2020. And at the time, not to bring up the drama of that period, but we were all stuck inside with absolutely no outlets or anything to do. And I was speaking to my husband one day about just how we were all just taking in so much and had nowhere to put all this energy. And I described it as being like, we're sponges soaking everything up, and we have no way to ring ourselves out. And when I got that little metaphor out of me, I went, geez, that's a really nice image. And I went and I wrote the big squeeze based on that. And that's how I ended up going down the path of picture books because that one was the one that got me my agent.

Katy 3:10

And it took you a long time, though, didn't it? You got an agent quite quickly. I was looking at your work. You got an agent quite quickly, but then it took what three, three years.

Molly 3:19

Yeah, I think it was three and a half or so. Yeah, I didn't have to struggle too much in the query trenches on that one. And I know for a lot of authors, that is a really long process. I was very lucky. And I am still with my agent Sarah Rivers. She's wonderful. And the book did get picked up by HarperCollins quite quickly, actually. But I had this very quick start, and then I discovered, my goodness, it takes a long time to make picture books.

Katy 3:50

Yeah.

Molly 3:50

So I think it was acquired in well, I'll get this date wrong, maybe 2021. And it ended up coming out in 2024. Wow. And so just keeping that little secret. I didn't want to until it felt real. I didn't really share it with a lot of people. So I kept it to myself for a while. Wanted something a little more tangible to share with my parents. This is real. This is happening.

Katy 4:11

And was Whirby quicker? So you must have been commissioned for Worby while you were waiting for that to come out.

Molly 4:18

I wrote Whirby then, I think that was 2023. I had given that manuscript to my agent who we went back to HarperCollins with that one. And yeah, they did pick that up within the year, I think it was that we gave it to them. Publishing industry is very slow. They've backlog, they know it's hard for can't imagine what inboxes look like in the editorial set of things. But it did get picked up. And from I think from when I gave it to my agent to when it is coming out is exactly three years. It's a very long process. It is a really long process.

Ali 5:09

So do you want to give us a quick overview of Whirby? Who he is? Yeah. Give us a little a little bit about him.

Molly 5:15

Yeah. So Whirby is a robot. Is he a him or then? He's a him. He's a him. Yeah. I have two boys, so I really wanted. And this is very drawn from a real life experience of my boys. Werby is a little robot who loves going to his robot school. My illustrator is Jacob Suova, and he really developed this beautiful world in which Whirby lives in with all these other robots. And they do go to school, and he's a good little student. And his favorite class is called gadgetering. In gadgetering, you come up with these contraptions to fight in bot battles. So if you've seen those really exciting, like real-life battle bot kind of things, it's that type of thing. And Whirby loves this. It's very exciting, very stimulating for him. And he goes, he's supposed to be going to bed one night, but he's a little too excited about the prospect of being in a bot battle the next day. He stays up all night and forgets to charge himself in because he has a robot and he has a finite battery. And over the course of this night, while he is just playing around and getting really hyped up that his battery level is actually going down, down. And he ends up going to school the next day and he's malfunctioning because he's really running on empty. And I won't spoil it, but if you have ever, ever been exhausted in that kind of way, you probably know it doesn't go great for him when he gets into the ring to battle.

Katy 6:44

Yeah. Staying up all night, not good for anyone ever. You said that it came from your children. How did that come about? And where did that story fall?

Molly 6:55

My eldest son at the time, he was two in a bit, and he was going through this stage at bedtime, as they are wont to do. And we but we were really struggling with it. I was pregnant with my next son. We were trying to buy a house. We were currently like living with my in-laws at the time. We had we were just we were very stressed out. We had just moved back to Ireland as well. So we were all sort of out of our routines and we're just in this really desperate space. And he is waking up in the middle of the night, grouchy the next day, refusing to go to bed. And he was a two-year-old, so he was into robots. And I just desperately said to him one night, buddy, even robots got to plug in. Like it's like a phone or a tablet. They don't just go forever. You have to charge them overnight. And he was like, What if you don't? And that was really the jumping off point. What if you don't? He's gonna act really slow and glitchy, and none of his gizmos are gonna work. And eventually he's just gonna power down. He's gonna be busted until he charges up. And that's just how it is. And we started to refer to that bedtime routine as it's time to charge your batteries. And yeah, that was he is now he's almost six and he sleeps great. But the irony is at the time I was pregnant with my second son, and now for exactly three years later, he's the exact same age. We are doing these this whole thing all over again.

Katy 8:19

I have a lot of sympathy. My eldest was quite a good sleeper, but my youngest was actually old enough to understand the concept of bribery before she slept through the night. And yes, not my best parenting moment, but it did finally work.

Ali 8:35

You do what you're gonna do to get your sleep. It's the adult as well. You'll get the end of your tether as well. You you need to recharge and get some absolutely I'm pretty glitchy.

Molly 8:45

Glitchy parenting going on at the end of the day.

Katy 8:48

Yeah, mine was probably nearly three before she slept through the night. Um, but it's about that time.

Molly 8:54

That's what I find so interesting about gosh, this book is coming out, and it's actually now more pertinent about the second one. Yeah. And but it is it's because just in that time, they this is where they really they're showing how uh independent they are.

Katy 9:08

And what are you doing? There's nothing worse when you have to you've been through that and then you have to get up in the morning and go to work and try and be a normal human being anyway.

Molly 9:15

No, the feeling, and that's what I think Jacob did a great job in the illustrations of really depicting what that feels like the next day. And Werby has these bright green eyes, but if there's little details aside from the battery going down, like his green eyes are actually red as he's about to crash out, and it's like, yeah, that's how it feels pretty.

Ali 9:36

And even though it's got those clear messages that you need to sleep and things, it doesn't feel like a lesson with the robot bolted on. Right. So, how conscious were you of keeping the story first and then the mess kind of creeping in? How are you balancing that?

Molly 9:51

It's a tricky thing because you don't want to be too didactic, you don't want to be too much go to bed. I think there are, and we read all the bedtime stories, right? I think there's maybe two kind of main types. One is the kind of like go to bed already. And trust me, I've been there. And then there's a lullaby, the kind of like soothing rhyming off to bed now, sleepy head. Yeah, and we love them. Like I mentioned earlier, they're great. I didn't want it to necessarily be you're being told to go to bed. I wanted it to like, can you recognize what it feels like when you don't? And I think that's where the robot and it's really obvious once you read theory, it's his cranks are cranky and his gears are gritty, and yeah, you just don't feel quite right and you don't act quite right. And he's got the siren that's just blasting, and that's when you just start yelling and you get upset very suddenly, and you can't control it. So I wanted it to be more can you recognize what that feels like as opposed to go to bed, sleepy hat. I do love those types of stories, but I wanted this to also be a fun read, which it's a high energy story, but hopefully you get the point. But if you want to have high energy, you still have to charge up. You can have all this fun, you just gotta charge before you do it, or otherwise there's consequences to that. You may not be able to play your game the next day.

Katy 11:17

Yeah. And there's some quite Ali and I were talking about it, that there's some quite big words in it. It's got quite a lot of technical words about robots.

Molly 11:27

Yeah, I'd like to put in some words that are fun to say. Somebody was saying to me the other day, actuator, and made a big list of buzzy sounding mechanical words. My husband is a mechanical engineer, so I also was running it past most. And I did also run it by him. Is this could this robot exist? Or am I inventing, I'm just throwing words out here? And he's for the most part, yeah. So I think we have to suspend our belief a little bit. But yeah, yeah, creative license aside, yeah, just could be feasible.

Katy 11:56

I like books with big long words in it that small children don't really need in their vocabulary. But which is that book, Ali? The one where you've got the three little wolves and the big bad pig. Is it Helen Oxenbury? I know, and there's one wonderful words in it, pneumatic drill. And yeah, it's got really great words in it, and but they're not toddler necessarily. They sound really nice.

Molly 12:21

I think it's I'm I tend towards if it sounds good, like a turbulent turbo booster. I think that's a fun phrase to say. And yeah, I wanted it to be an more of an action-packed kind of story. Some of them are maybe a little bit of a mouthful, especially if you're just learning to read. Don't get me wrong, but I think that kind of adds to the or hope it adds to the experience of reading it.

Ali 12:46

Like I think it really does. And I think kids do like long words, they know all know the names of every dinosaur by a certain age. Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah, they can manage those. So I think it's great that there's some big interesting, fun-sounding words.

Molly 13:02

My dad was asking me, he was like, it's great. I do think it's great. Um, algorithm? Do we want that word out there for kids? And I was like, honestly, the kids, they're all coding when they're children now. So I think I also felt that they're far more technical digital generation coming up. I this might seem strange to us, but I don't know. There's loads of kids' books about coding now as well. How to code a sandcastle by Josh Funk is one. There, there are, I don't know if they're that far off from like actually completely understanding what a lot of these terms are. So yeah, I have fun with it.

Ali 13:38

They're nice, and they're nice words to say as well, which are nice words. They're nice words to read aloud.

Molly 13:42

Yeah, like automonopeia types as well. But I like to I definitely like to use those.

Katy 13:48

Yeah. And in terms of the illustrations, Jacob Souva's illustrations, I really like them. They're not, I think, what you might expect in terms of a robot, in that they're quite soft and muted and textured. It's not a sort of shiny approach. How did you feel when you saw them? You must have had something in your mind when you were writing it.

Molly 14:09

And how did that sometimes I do have something in my mind? I think I was in my mind at the time. There was a TV show, I don't remember what it was on, and might have only been in the States. It was called Rolly Polioli. And it was about a robot world. And they were all very round and shiny and yellow head but gray sort of connectors and stuff. So when I saw Werby for the first time, that I was, oh yeah, he's got this yellow head and these kind of gray connectors. Like that part was right. But fortunately, I didn't really have a set picture in my mind because Jacob uses a lot of texture. And I think that's for me. If when I first saw the first spread, and all my text said was Werby is a robot going to robot school or something like that. That was it. And he took that and made an entire world out of it. And I think all those textures, tons of color. The color palette is so interesting. You would think these things wouldn't go together, but they do, which is actually fun from the robot making all these different parts and things. Like I think that actually works really well. Yeah, it was definitely surprising. I knew what his aesthetic was, Jacob's got him general aesthetic was with the texture and layers, and but uh yeah, I just couldn't get over the level of detail. And even though it's a robotic world, he's got palm trees in the background and they could see the sun setting. Yeah. And it's it just feels like very a very real place.

Katy 15:40

Um the robots are slightly different, so you can tell them apart and you can see how they might battle differently and things. They could potentially each have their own strengths.

Molly 15:48

And Dottie is one of the characters I really like. She is the one that Werby is up against in when it's his term to go to a bot battle. And she's just this little diminutive pink robot, but she's really bears, and she's got this massive blade, and he's intimidated by her as he should be because he's not prepared at all.

Katy 16:06

It's quite a brutal world robot.

Molly 16:09

Yeah, yeah. Kids have asked me why don't we get to see the battles? And I'm like, oh, yeah. That's true. We leave that part off the page because parts would go flying.

Katy 16:17

But yeah. I was gonna say the ones that you do see on TV are quite brutal, so you have to leave that bit to your imagination. Exactly. You can imagine that. And uh I'm right in thinking that he brought the dog in.

Molly 16:29

That's right. Whirby has a little dog. I did not imagine that. This is again why it's great as the author to just see what the illustrator might bring to it. Love the dog. The dog even plugs in at night, which was so funny to me. If you look throughout the illustrations, the plant has a little plug that that charges up. There's loads of little details like that. And Jacob and I feel the dog needs its own name, so we're gone with Sparky. Oh, okay. Thought that was a nice technical, mechanical name for him. Yeah, I'm sure you'll get asked that at school. I know. I was like, I need to have an answer for that.

Ali 17:03

So your first book was about a sponge overdoing it and burning out, and now you've got a robot learning the importance of sleep. So what the non-human character using that to explore a human experience. Um, why do you think that is useful for the child reading it?

Molly 17:20

Yeah, I think it's because it makes it universal. I think that's why it's useful. I don't really know why I always tend to tend to like it's not, I don't go and go look around the house and say, what could I use? Although I think when I am trying to explain something to my own children, I try to find something that is tangible and right in front of them that they can relate to. Because I guess the sponge thing, I've said that for years before I wrote the book. It was like, I feel like a sponge right now. I take everything in without any thinking about things, like how will I turn this into a story? That was just some that's how my brain thinks about dings. So I do tend to write that. But I think the reason I think it's been working for the picture books is because it's universal. There's no anybody can actually relate to this. Anybody can see themselves in that when they're depicted just very vulnerable. I think I write very like characters on the brink of meltdown or a breakdown, or and I think kids relate to that very much because they're always just about to turn and have that tantrum or something, or certainly my kids are. But yeah, I think anybody can see themselves in those objects. I've been fortunate the the illustrators really give them these very emotive eyes and making them extra adorable. And the next I do have a book coming out end of this year with a rocket ship as the main character, and that's called I Need Space. And it's similarly like it needs to cool as jets. And I try to use terminology around rocket ships and blasting off and being really fiery and then cooling down. They work, those kinds of metaphors.

Katy 19:01

Definitely they become human, they feel human, human-like. And presumably you've been in schools with them. What kind of responses do you get from children? And what kind of conversations are you hoping that it opens up?

Molly 19:14

So because Worby's just come out, I haven't had too much time yet in front of kids, but I've done a few story times with it when I was over in the States so far. And yeah, I think it's very they get the message very quickly, but are excited about it. So we were doing a craft where we made Worby's got a lightning bolt charger on him. We made these bracelets with a little lightning bolt charm, and that's you're charging up bracelets to remind you when you go to bed, or it's time to charge up. I think that term charge up, it sounds exciting when it's really go to bed. So I think they understand it, but it seems like they're really getting the message with that feeling. Okay. It's a different spin on what they have to do every night. So I think they've been responding well to that. The big squeeze, it depends on the ages. The younger kids, the big squeeze has a sponge soaking up everything in a dirty kitchen, and she ends up being really filthy, dirty, soggy, bit of a mess, and needs to learn to take time for herself, squeeze yourself out before she can help others. That's the kind of message of that one. Kids love the dirty kitchen. They really like reacting to all the messy stuff. And I think the bigger picture of it, that taking time to rest, I get the parents' teachers, the grown-ups come up and go, Wow, I never thought I'd relate to a sponge before. But I think when I wrote that one, I thought that that message might be for quite young kids. Maybe they wouldn't necessarily get it, but they might see it in others. And so it's also about recognizing in others when is your parent like at the end of their capacity and don't mind if you've got to go lie down for a bit or if dad needs a day off or whatever.

Katy 20:57

I thought that about Whirby, that it might actually open up conversations about adults needing sleep too, as much as it was about children.

Molly 21:04

Exactly. I think the conversation is something I was always thinking about with the big spees, but I think it works with Worby. Just to have the language to say, I'm sorry, I don't have it in me tonight to talk for half an hour. I'm tired. Like I need to go charge my batteries, or I need to just go take time for myself for a bit so that I can be more fun with you tomorrow. And I think it must be because I didn't get a good night's sleep last night. Then it's it's not your fault. It's me, I need to go charge. So yeah, I hope that will open up nice conversations.

Ali 21:34

Yeah, because quite often kids want to have those conversations before bed. Yeah. Sometimes partly is a delaying technique, but also because sometimes actually it's time to process what they've been going through the day. And it's there's a kind of balance, isn't there, between it is time to go to bed yet. But we do have time to talk about if there's something worrying you.

Molly 21:53

That's very true. Going through that right now with my five, almost six year old, and end of the day, and he's like, what should we talk about? Like, oh, yeah, I guess it's because that is, it's like when you're growing up and you put your head on the pill and you're all ready to go to bed, and then you're like, all the things I have to do tomorrow. And what it oh, what was that weird conversation I had earlier? Just was that weird, you know, make the to-do list, what's happening in the world? Like it all just comes to you at the end of the day. And I think it is what's happening with kids at the end of the day too. And all right, let's decompress a little now.

Ali 22:24

We've talked a little bit about I need space. Um do you think there's now a thread linking all the three books, even if you didn't plan it that way?

Molly 22:33

It wasn't planned that way, but absolutely it's all very much about taking a minute for yourself. A lot of mine are coming from their ideas that are coming out of real conversations that I'm having with my kid, with my husband, and it's usually out of these. How do you communicate this feeling that I'm having and what do you do about it? And a lot of times we say it in our house, just go take a minute. Just tell that kid, I need space for a few minutes if they're playing too rough, or say to your brother, I don't want to do that right now. I need space, I'm mad. And let them know that's it. You can diffuse the situation pretty quickly if you can do that. So that's I need space that came out of how to deal with other kids. And how do you let them know without it being just blowing up at them? And so yeah, it's that in that one, there's a rocket ship that does need to go and chill out basically for a few minutes and before they're ready to come back and play. And that that is Worby doesn't have to necessarily take time, but he has to look after his body. And with the big squeeze, it's don't don't work so hard before it's too late and you can't don't burn out, don't break down basically. But yeah, there's definitely a common thread there. Obviously, that's what's in my head all the time. I think everybody's you need time, huh?

Katy 23:48

You need time. Definitely know that feeling. So you've already done the launch of the book in America, and you're about to do Ireland, and you're gonna be in the UK as well. Am I am I right? I'm not gonna be in the UK, but I am gonna I'm in Ireland. I don't have any events in the UK, no. So you're doing the launch in Ireland. Uh you're available though. Are you available for school visits in the UK in theory? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And so I just want to ask, what do you feel is like different in terms of the children's book market and how it works in the US to Ireland?

Molly 24:18

One thing I was just realizing when I go over to the US and I do, when I say I do events, oftentimes what I'm doing is jumping in on an existing, like a standing story time that bookstores have. Bookstores in America often have at 11 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday. It's story time. And it will be the booksellers doing readings of some of the books that are coming out. And this is something that parents can bring their kids to and get a copy. And it's really common. And so I was able to set that up quite simply and just say, Well, I step in on this Saturday and do my book. And that they're always quite happy to have a visiting author come in and there's an existing audience that's they're gonna be there. Yeah. Because this is weekly, we do this. So I'm finding that's not the case in Ireland. I am doing an event here at a local bookstore, but it seems the story times tend to be more in libraries or I would need to go to schools and stuff. So that's something that I'm navigating right now. What about in the UK? Haven't actually noticed. Is it common to have a story time in a bookstore?

Ali 25:22

Quite a lot of them do. Yeah. But it is more libraries, I'd say.

Katy 25:26

Yeah. Yeah, there's lots of story times in libraries. So they'll have whatever it is, bounce and rhyme. I've got that the wrong way around, isn't it? Todd toddler bounce or something where they do use nursery rhymes and short stories, they tend to be for the littler ones during the week while the older ones are at school. Rhyme time. Rhyme time, that's yeah. And I don't know, I know my local bookshop has a children's book club on a Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon. I can't remember. But yeah, I I think it's perhaps not as routine. But most of the independent bookshops have a whole series of events because it's the only way they can actually keep going. It's part of their getting people in and having an events program is crucial in terms of their viability. Right.

Ali 26:11

And also you're part of the Laureate's Live Mentoring Program. What does that involve?

Molly 26:16

Yeah. So the Laureate Nano is the children's laureate here in Ireland. Patricia Ford has been the laureate here. I think she had a maybe a three or four-year student. Hers is just coming to an end. She uh was a wonderful mentor. So she's highly published, got at least a dozen books, I'd say, in middle grade and picture books as well. And so this program came at a time for me where I really needed it because as I was kind of mentioning, I wasn't really sure where to go do events. I wasn't hearing from schools. Do I ask schools? Should I come in? How do I get in that people know that I'm here, that I can do this? How do I get the word out and engage with the kids? And I was having a little bit of a crisis about this after big squeokies. And suddenly, just serendipitously, the laureate had launched, yeah, it's called the Live Literature Mentoring Program about doing school visits, how to present your text to kids, develop programs for festivals, for just being able to get up and speak about it. And so there were four of us selected. I, in typical form, talks about very vulnerably about how it's like uh this has been a struggle for me. And she said that she could tell that I was genuinely very interested in developing this skill. Writers, we sit in our rooms alone, yeah, most of the time. That's we're not necessarily the get out there and go and talk about ourselves. Oh my gosh. It's kind of hard. It's scary. It is, yeah. And this kind of conversation is very nice. But to get up in front of people and go, I'm here and this is I must be it just it's it's a Nicky kind of feeling until you get practice at it. And the first time I went and did just a reading of my book, I was really shaky, trembly. I had like nearly a panic attack beforehand. And I was like, I can't, that can't happen. I'll never be able to do this. Because with kids, you really need to be interfacing with them. And I need to get out there. I can't just write it and put it out there, and that's it. So anyway, the program was very much about getting practice at it. And there's this one of the best parts of it was the program placed us into a school here in Ireland, and Patricia Ford came with us and with each of us individually and watched us from the back of the class. And then we went to lunch after, and she gave loads of feedback about I think this worked, I think this didn't. And just that was a really special touch. And we had just such a great chat after I think it gave me confidence that now I can get up and read my story. And I I'm still learning, absolutely still learning, but oh what a terrific opportunity that was.

Ali 29:03

Yeah, and there's a thing that's happening in the UK now with GLL are doing that as well, aren't they? They're mentioning authors.

Katy 29:11

Literary foundation. Yeah. They run quite a lot of public libraries in the UK, and they have a similar thing, which is supporting authors, and they do things like practicing doing presentations with children and things like that.

Molly 29:23

It's great because being able to manage like kids talking over you. What do you do when sometimes a kid stands up and wants to be the center of attention and it's got a story? Like even just little tips on like how to you're gonna lose the attention of everybody else if this one stands up and starts talking. And like it does happen every time. Somebody wants to take over and doesn't understand. And she just had these little tips of this little hand gesture I'll do to kind of move along, keep it flowing, have these stories in your back pocket. What to do if the teacher leaves the classroom? That's yeah, that's instant panic. Well, they go wild. Like if I just put myself out there, especially as I grew up in America, and I think going into maybe American elementary schools, I'd be familiar. It would feel like hallways I knew. Yeah. But because I'm here in Ireland, my own kids are just getting started in primary school. So I just don't even have I didn't have the experience of even setting a foot in one yet. So for to have her there with me for the first time was what a gift.

Katy 30:27

That sounds great. No, we hear quite a lot of that Ireland is getting a lot of things right in supporting both children's authors and children as readers as well.

Molly 30:37

Children's Books Ireland is a fantastic organization. So I'm working with that, they were the funders of that program. And I'm also they're I'm doing school visits with them right now, but champions of reading is what it's called, and visiting schools that are being gifted 250 brand new books for their school library. And then you get assigned a champion who comes in. So I come in for six visits and meet with all different ages and just getting them excited about reading. It's not about my own books, it's just about what kind of books do you like.

Ali 31:10

And there's something about you going in multiple times as well. I think they they like uh other adults coming in, but they also will feel more comfortable because they'll get to know you. So there's that kind of two-way conversation.

Molly 31:22

Depending on the age, I think sometimes it you can just feel like you're the morning's entertainment sometimes going in. And with this, I feel a bit more like they're excited to see me just find out what we're going to do. And some of them are so sweet, they give me little presents and stuff. Like they're very sweet. Um, like little notes, and I made you this bookmark and things. It does feel I have more time to actually get to know them. And hey, you said you liked this horror book, right? Have you heard of this one? I can actually make real recommendations to them. So yeah, they're awesome.

Katy 31:53

That's nice. I think we should try and find out more about Children's Book Island and what they're doing.

Molly 31:57

Oh, fantastic. Fantastic organization.

Katy 32:00

So it's it's been really great. Ali, do you want to ask a final question?

Ali 32:04

What is our final question? Is there a picture book that you've come across recently that you think deserves more attention?

Molly 32:11

Oh, great question. I'm looking at a little stack that I have here. Okay, here's one. I'm not sure you would have seen this, but I love this. And we read it all the time in my house. I think it's just a perfect book. Hold up for you. It's called Benita and the Night Creatures. Uh-huh. Is that Mariana Llanos? Uh-huh. So this is a story about a girl called Benita who's just trying to read a book. All she wants to do is read her book in bed. And the author is Peruvian. And so these Peruvian monsters, there's three, three or four Peruvian monsters that kind of surround her there on the cover. They keep coming to try to scare her, but she cannot, she is reading. She can't don't bother her. She's reading. And they're like, What is up with this little girl? Why can't we scare her? And they keep trying. And eventually they're like, What is it that you're doing? And she shows them how beautiful her book is. And it's a very just a really that this it's illustrated by Coco retto. And the illustrations, it's just, it's nice. It's a spooky story, but we read it all year round. It's not a Halloween story per se. It's it's for if like my kids love kind of anything spooky, creepy, or whatever, and it really turns it on its head. I think that's a when I read it, I was like, this is perfect.

Katy 33:30

Okay, yeah, that's a great recommendation. Thank you. See, this is worth asking for recommendations. That's definitely that's one I haven't seen. So I have to check out. Hopefully, we can get it here in the UK. And it's been really lovely talking to you and finding out about Werby. Thank you so much. It's been lovely to talk to you. Thank you. So that was interesting. Do look out for Wirby in a bookshop near you.

Ali 33:54

Yeah, and Ireland came up again as somewhere that's doing good things to support authors and reading for pleasure.

Katy 34:00

Yeah, I think that must be the third or fourth person to mention Ireland. Because Louie was talking about Louis Stour was talking about it, wasn't she? And somebody else has mentioned it as well. So I I think we probably should do a bit more of a a delve into what's going on in Ireland and what they're getting right. So we can that can be added to our to-do list, because I know you're you're feeling swamped by our to-do list which never gets done. We'll chip away then. Yeah.

Ali 34:26

Before we go, we've got a couple of other picture books that caught our eye. So first up is Darren Chetty's I'm going to make a friend, which is now out in paperback. Explores the challenges of moving somewhere new and making friends. The main character worries about how long it will take and whether anyone will notice him. All familiar fears for any child going somewhere new. He decides to put his making skills to work and literally makes a friend in the form of a robot, all the while puzzling about what qualities it should have.

Katy 34:54

And it's got lovely illustrations by Sandhya Prabhat, which have lots of details to spot. There are dinosaurs and dragons and, of course, most importantly, a cat that features on every page. So look out for that. Second up, we have a new book by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Paddy Donnelly, which is called Naughty. And it's bursting with colour. Again, there are lots of things to spot in the illustrations. And it's one of those books that I think it would take a long time to read with an attentive listener. Which is fabulous.

Ali 35:32

And it opens with a boy sitting on the bottom step of a flight of stairs looking miserable. He's got muddy boots on, and the muddy footprints are on the floor. Suggests that he's either already in trouble and on the naughty step or is expecting to be.

Katy 35:47

Yeah, it doesn't sort of explicitly say he's on the naughty step, but it definitely looks like it might be that way. And the text focuses on the cat who is on the naughty mat for chasing a bird, and the bird in turn is on the naughty perch because he said a naughty word. And it kind of goes through as a very slight rabbit and a bull and a I don't know, all sorts of assorted animals, until there is absolute chaos in the hallway, which actually feels a bit like my hallway, but you know, people wandering into the house. But absolute chaos.

Ali 36:22

Uh and then finally daddy's quite naughty too, and shows that's right, yeah. It isn't always that easy, and that maybe leaving muddy footprints isn't the worst thing you can do.

Katy 36:34

No, it kind of makes the muddy footprints sort of fade into the background there. Anyway, it is really good fun. And should probably also say that Jean is one of our, I think our my definitely favourite author of one of my favourite books, which is Tadpole's Promise, which if you haven't read it, you absolutely must. It's it's not for the faint-hearted, is it, Ali?

Ali 36:56

It's not, it's traumatic, frankly. It's traumatic.

Katy 37:00

It turns on its head everything you and possibly and whoever you're reading it to thinks that they know about picture books that start talking about tadpoles and caterpillars and what happens to tadpoles and caterpillars.

Ali 37:15

Yeah. Um should definitely come with a warning message.

Katy 37:19

Yeah. Well, don't say we didn't warn you. Yeah. But do but find it and read it. Yeah. Anyway, enjoy it.