Books for Keeps

The ACHUKA #BookoftheDay for Mon 2 Nov is Tim and the Brave Sea Captain by Edward Ardizzone from @NYRB_Imprints f.p. 90 years ago If I had been a children’s publisher (something you’ll not be surprised to hear I’ve fantasised about many a time) it would have been a dream of mine to discover a contemporary Edward Ardizzone, a writer and illustrator of longer tales for young children. Today, the average illustrated children’s story (a picture book) runs between 300 and 600 words. It can be read aloud in a flash, which is wonderful, but there comes a time when children are ready to listen to and lose themselves in something longer — story that will take 10–15 minutes to read aloud. Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain was the first book Ardizzone both wrote and illustrated. It was published 90 years ago in 1936, and at around 1500 words is some three times as long as most of today’s picture books. There were to be many other stories about Tim. Not all of them had as many words as the first one, but they were never less than twice as long as current to-be-read-aloud books. Today’s parents, looking for more lengthy stories to read aloud to children, will find themselves having to jump to chapter books, read over consecutive evenings, or to non-fiction books. I feel sure that longer illustrated stories that take 10–15 minutes to read aloud represent a gap in today’s market that is crying out to be filled. I hope this new NYRB Kids edition of Ardizzone’s first Tim title will lead people to all the other Tim books. achuka.co.uk/blog/little-tim…