South London Press article about Mabel.

Couldn't post this before because I was away. But great to see this .....

A lovely article in South London Press.

Half a page - the kids did well!

The launch!

Finally, the launch party for Nurse Mabel and her Amazing Fleas!



It was such a success. Better than any other launch party I have ever attended - none had the energy, excitement and sense of fun of this.   The kids were so excited, so proud and so pleased with their book. A photographer from the South London Press came along and took pictures of them, which made them even more excited.



And several mums and carers took time off work to attend as well.







This trio offered to pose for their photo!

and the children didn't have to be told to read the books.

 

They were pleased to see themselves and their friends in the back pages, and to recognise the parts of the text that they themselves had written.



After the children had taken a first look at the book, Vanessa talked through it with them, and they heard for the first time the story that they had all written and put together, read aloud.

 

We also had a cake with a Red Cross on it, and a big M for Mabel

And red party bags to finish off with, including medical themed gifts and sweets, and some pencils from the Wellcome Trust.  What a worthwhile project. I start to realise some of the feelings that teachers can get out of their job.

I really enjoyed it, and so did Vanessa and Tony, and their teacher Miss Clifford - and, most certainly, so did the kids!

Party Bags?

So what should we put in the party bags for the launch on 19 June? Most inexpensive gifts with a medical theme are a teeny bit weird (rubber gloves, anyone?)  Or they are gruesome - not that children seem to mind that.  But with 28 of them to buy for, the cost of individual gifts adds up.

I've had a look on Etsy for some ideas.... hmmm....

There's an aspirin pendant

 heartbeat trace bracelet

 brooch in the shape of an anatomical heart

and my favourite, soap in the shape of pills.  I'd get that - except that for all the kids to have a bar,  it would cost over £80.

Back to the party shop, then..

Kids, Upheavals and Challenges

Some children have faced great upheavals. Some come from war zones or have families facing difficult times in other countries. In an earlier post, our kids wrote about the fleas' feelings on going away with Mabel to the war. Here's the completed page that covers how the different fleas deal with this big change in their lives.  Hope you love it as much as I do.

A few people have asked how they can buy the book, and so we've put Paypal buttons in the right hand column.  Any profits go towards more writing projects with the school, so I hope you'll consider buying the book for any kids you know who have to face challenges and upheavals, who are getting dragged along with adults doing things that will change their lives ....

... or, of course, who are just interested in the idea of being a nurse in wartime, or what fleas might think about going away on a big adventure  :)

.  

Yay! Nearly Ready!

The book is almost ready for printing. We're having our launch on 19 June.  Here's the proof copy - doesn't it look good?

We've done a lot of work since we got the proofs so the final copies will be even better, now the typos are sorted out.

Choosing an Illustrator

Here's Russell, our illustrator, at work on a poster for Mabel's flea circus.  Working with Russell made everything easier than I'd thought it might be.  I once did an article that involved talking to children's book editors, and so I already knew that publishers are really desperate to find good artists who can draw what they're asked in a lively, entertaining way.  I'd also had two children's book texts optioned and paid for by publishers who then couldn't find artists to make the ideas work. 

So when Frank had to pull out, we needed another illustrator,  and I became quite fed up as I googled and searched through countless illustration websites. Apart from the already-famous (and eye wateringly expensive) ones, I seemed only to be finding static, stylised or cute work, which didn't really suit our needs.   

Finally, Vanessa put out a Twitter alert to her many creative followers, and Russell was either recommended by someone or responded himself - I forget which.  We loved the lively work on his website, and the fact that he's into graphic novels, but what really helped was how he quickly entered into the fantastical spirit of the children's world.  And he could sketch anything, it seemed.   Here, the six-limbed Edwardian flea called Scary Simon is seen doing a "wall of death" routine on a bike, in a teacup.Not something most illustrators are used to drawing, but we felt Russell got just the right lively look. 

. 

As the pictures came in, we saw that he'd added extra touches of his own.  Some of these came in handy when we broke up blocks of text with details taken from the illustrations. Here is one of the flies paying a visit to Mabel's flea circus in Bermondsey. The children thought the flies ought to pay by bringing crumbs of food as payment for the show - like this.  

 At the end of the book, we've put a photo of all the children in the class. Russell decided to add some

life sized fleas into the group, as co-authors. It took me a while to notice, but I'm sure the kids will spot their new "classmates" immediately. 

I'll certainly use Twitter again for finding creative people, and we already have another project in mind that we'd like to use Russell for. But first of course we have to get Mabel on the road. The launch party is in  May.  All the production is now complete, and we're now waiting for the proofs - exciting!  

We don't plan to print very many paper books, as colour printing is so expensive. The children will each have their own copy, and we will sell some to the public, but we plan to make the whole thing downloadable, including the pictures, and it will also include Vanessa's instructions and advice for parents and educators who want to encourage their own kids to write creatively too. We really hope that some home educators and teachers will be interested enough to check it out.   Will keep the blog updated so you know what's going on.

Teaching Children How To Think

One of the exciting things about this project has been how it's got the kids thinking.   I've already described one session when they decided whether or not to go to war.  And they were fascinated by the idea of nurses and doctors helping "enemies" - in other words, was their training to heal more important than their political beliefs?  Quite big ideas for ten year olds, but discussing the subject with the Irish nurse, Deirdre, absorbed them.

The children sometimes wanted to discuss issues which bothered them. Some had to deal with difficult issues every day.  Drugs, parents who cannot cope, gangs, violence. But in school, though, teachers must give a moral lead to encourage kids to think along the "right" lines.  True -  but unless you can discuss an issue in a truly non judgmental way, many of the harder issues get pushed under the carpet and not dealt with at all.

A way around this is to teach children how to think.  That's why I'm interested in Philosophy for Children, or P4C. which produces resources to help kids to think in an organised way.   I'm glad my grammar-school education taught me how to think critically.  It's so important, when information zings around about everything, but few people seem to know whether that information is true, or sensible or not.

Years ago Penguin Education put out a wonderful series of books called "Connexions" which dealt with issues of interest to kids.  They're long out of print, although you can find second hand copies around.

There were lots of different topics in a lively, extensively illustrated and readable format,  beautifully visually designed.  I still think they are wonderful - if only someone would update and reissue them. 

The Cover!

Here's the art work for the book cover!   I'm so pleased with it.   It looks inviting and intriguing.

Russell has paid some homage to vintage illustrated books, particularly Toby Twirl (see below) with its plain colour background with full colour characters in the foreground. Although Edward Jeffrey created them in the 1940s and 1950s, the annuals are 1930s in style.
.

So if Mabel had been set 25 years later,  we'd have done the whole art deco thing with the font and brilliant colour.  But since she is in 1915, we've decided a "typewriter" font to give the book a more Edwardian feel, and the background has khaki, to suit the military theme.

Some of the illustrations are full page.  Here are the fleas spotting the evil robbers come to steal the "good drugs" off the train......

Other picture are in comic book format

I love the way that all the characters have different personalities, and Russell's drawings show this.

So, delighted.  Now, just have to wrestle with the intricacies of Lulu.  Oh, and ...well, there are actually LOTS of things to do. 

Flea Circus

The kids were keen on the idea of a flea circus.  They did want it to have a Big Top.  Or, I suppose, a Little Top.

Russell is well on his way with the pictures. Here is his pencil proposal for the Flea Circus. Looks good to me.

Peer Pressure and The Psychology of Going to War

When I was young, I heard tales (and songs, like the one above) of the Great War from old people who had been  young when they went out to the battlefields.   The songs were resolutely cheerful, and curiously, the people I met, at least, had memories of the war that were almost entirely positive. They recalled being excited to be away from home, away from parents telling them what to do, glad they were doing a useful job instead of being stuck labouring on a farm or drudging in someone's house. They liked the cameraderie, the feeling of being caught up in something big, they travelled to new places, they met the opposite sex.  None of them mentioned the sufferings and horrors which they must have seen.  One old man even told me it had been the best time of his life.

I think now that they, like most teenagers, were just insulated from it by the self absorption and energy of youth, but it shows the value of first hand testimony when looking at the past from today's perspective. .

We have not tried to convey to the children how horrible war is, partly because some of them are refugees from countries at war, and know first hand, and partly because it is wrong to inflict horrors unnecessarily on children.  But we did discuss how the people actually involved in going to war might have felt, and what reasons they would have heard both for and against. .

We had an interesting moment when Vanessa asked those who disapproved of going to war to stand aside.  Nearly half the class did so and formed a group of "conscientious objectors."    Within seconds, those who had chosen to "go for soldiers"  had started to jeer and call "coward!"  We stopped them, of course, but it was enough to persuade half the group of "conscientious objectors" that they should change sides and be with the soldiers after all.

It taught them something about peer pressure.   And at the end, a few diehards decided to be conscientious objectors, despite everything. .

Colourful Russell

We now have a new illustrator, Russell M. Olson, since Frank unfortunately had to pull out - we will miss him. (see here).   But we love Russell too. Here is a picture of him, by the sea.

Russell Mark Olson

...and he's coming up with some really interesting illustration suggestion.   Above are some sketches of colour ideas for the fleas. (Of course they might change later. ) The idea of having four arms is quite enchanting.

A Couple of Out-Takes

I wish we'd been able to use all the wonderful writing that the children produced.  Without the need to keep to strict historical accuracy, they created a surreal but endearing view of 1915 life from their 21st century viewpoint.  We had to omit so much of this material just to keep the narrative going, but it seems a pity not to use them, so here are some of them on the blog instead. 

I couldn't use Ryan's thoughts about the promoter because MABEL is the promoter of the flea circus, and so there is no room for the sinister sounding Mr. Lionel McRowan....

"Lionel McRowan was a stiff guy. He was black, with a bad attitude. He wore messy clothes. He put the posters up and asked if anyone would like to audition to be a circus animal. He got security guards. And he got audiences. They had to pay ten pounds per person."

This is how I imagine Lionel McRowan. Nasty!  

Another bit we couldn't use was how Calie got Mabel to the coast, to get the boat to France.

"When Mabel left her house she didn't have any money so she couldn't get a taxi or anything that you had to pay for. Luckily for her, her fleas could talk so she told her fleas to talk to a horse and got a horse to take her to the coast."

And so one did.  Just as well that there is sometimes a stray horse wandering around the road with nothing much to do 

Historical Accuracy Bites the Dust

We have finally completed the text, which is all in the Boutcher children's own words (with a few linking bits from me).

We had to decide whether to make sure the material was all historically accurate, and in the end we decided not to.   We didn't actually suggest that they had steampunk soldiers like the ones above, but there was so much that the children had to learn, and no chance of them becoming historians in the time available, so we had to let a certain amount of accuracy go.

Of course we did our best to explain how different life was then....

"So I'll put that Mabel emailed her friends - "
"But they didn't have email or any sort of internet."
"All right, she skyped her friends."
"They didn't have skype."
"All right, then, she got out her phone and - "
"Hardly anyone had phones"
(Baffled silence)

And the children did very well indeed to understand how in Mabel's day there were no modern communications. They were interested to learn that horses were widely used, that trains were powered by steam - not to mention getting their heads around the idea of a flea circus and an ambulance train.   But it was clear that their story would be much better if they could be themselves.  Which meant letting a certain amount of reality escape out of the window!

Angels of Mercy

In the First World War, nurses like Mabel (and my grandma) were sometimes called Angels of Mercy.  I spotted these (with real wings - well, almost real) at World Travel Market in London a few weeks ago. They, and the WW1 officers behind, were promoting battlefield tours in Belgium.  I have no doubt that the soldiers who were injured or killed there would have been only too glad to go on a Battlefield Tour with a nice cosy hotel every night -  rather than experience the real thing. 

One thing that is nice, though, is the way these nurses are laughing and having a good time.  Grandma got a lot out of being a nurse, and looked back with satisfaction on her time on the ambulance train.

Happiness, by Jennifer

The children have been thinking a lot about expressing their feelings in this project.  Good, bad, frightening, creepy, happy.   Here's what Jennifer wrote about Happiness on the last session at Boutcher..
--------------------------------------------
"Happiness is baby blue and dark gold.
It is Monopoly, because everybody has fun.
It's when a trumpet plays jazzy music.
Happiness is barbecue chicken because you can smell the lovely scent.
When we are happy we go to church and we feel good because we sing.
I feel peaceful when I'm all alone."

Bad News and Good News

Both bad news and good news.  Bad news is that Frank has had to pull out of the illustrating, the main reason being that he now has commitments in his family life that he wasn't anticipating when he joined the project.  The good news is that the children are producing some wonderful work.  In the last couple of sessions they've been thinking about the flea characters who will accompany Mabel on her nursing expedition to France.

Of course, fleas are not supposed to be on the hospital train at all, and if anyone finds out about them, they might be cleaned away by nurses armed with disinfectant and scrubbing brushes.  But Mabel plans to hide them in her sewing box, so they can keep her company when she is off duty. And what is more, they are all part of the flea circus, and don't want to be separated!

The kids are very interested in all this and are full of ideas.  Each flea has its own personality, and they've been trying to get inside the heads of each character.

Here's "Bossy Benji," the high dive flea, describing his conflicted feelings, in the words of Siraj.

 "I was really worried because Mabel was going to go to war and leave me here all by myself and might never come back."

By contrast, Ajebike understand how "Lazy Linda"  feels because she hasn't bothered to listen.

"I am feeling confused because I did not listen to anything she said. Does this mean I am leaving my home and friends?"

Scary Simon, who rides the wall of death, struggles with keeping up a brave front and dealing with his fear.  I think Alex has really got inside Scary Simon's head, showing how he keeps his bad feelings to himself:. 

 "I felt a bit scared, what if we all get killed?    I will still be brave because I am brave and I am not scared to do anything. My heart started beating and I did not know what to do. All the other fleas felt so happy and I didn't have a choice, so I had to go. 

"I felt abandoned because Mabel is doing her nursing and she is not looking after us and she's not feeding us- we are hungry and I don't like her any more because she's not spending time with us."

And I really love Ayesha's description of Brainy Barbara's thoughts. 

"I will probably be able to read silently and write an interesting book. I've decided its going to be about medicine. I am happy and not even this dark and damp box can dampen my spirit.

"First, someone needs to watch the nurses and someone needs to change that bandage, the wound is infected and I need to find the medicine and read the labels and I need to get a scrape of paper and two scrapes of card to make my book. I have brought one of my little bottles of ink."

Great stuff!!  I'm looking forward to seeing what they write next.  

Here's our last picture of Frank, who was getting along really well with the pictures and just starting on a beautiful steam train.      Here he is with a ticket for the flea circus, which is a cut-out that will form part of a collage on one of the pages.   Russell will run with some of these ideas.