The Fox and the Box. Picture Books: Who are they really for?

Last Sunday at Belper Book Festival, a lady approached my stall and asked what my new book, Box of Treasures, was all about. I started to explain that it was a wordless picture book about a fox’s discovery of a buried box in a garden, and before I could continue, she declared that her granddaughter was 5 years old and reading words now, so this would not be suitable. As she started edging away, I suggested my 4 other books with words, but I could tell that she’d made up her mind. My picture books were not for her.

As somebody who values storytelling through illustration, with or without words, the comment about my new book stung a little. It raised the question in my mind, “does a picture book have more or less value without words?”. Illustration has been my life’s obsession, and I’ve never really considered that a picture book without words would mean less to anybody. In fact, I’ve always been more in awe of those skilled artists who can communicate messages through their drawings. One image can suggest a particular narrative, tone, feeling and leave a powerful lasting impact. One image can be “read” by any person of any age, of any reading ability. One image can invite discussions and help expand imaginations. One image can be understood by groups of people who speak completely different languages. One image can mean something to one person, and something entirely different to another, depending on their own life experiences. One image is an instant way of communicating a message (see emojis for example).

My first wordless picture book, Box of Treasures, began life as a Story Calendar. This is my fifth calendar which tells the story on each page turn and month of the year 2025. I felt very early on that this story didn’t really need the support of a rhyming couplet, as the illustrations were strong enough to speak for themselves. However, I knew it needed an introduction of sorts, so the front cover provides this with a little box lid for the viewer to open. Inside the lid the story begins with: “Digging in the garden a curious fox, finds a rusty old tin, a small treasure box.” On completing the calendar and designing the back cover, I wanted to offer the viewer a little more explanation as to where the collection of figurines originated from. So, the back cover became a collaged design of old polaroid photos, which depicted each treasure figurine in its original home.

After showing the original drawings to a few friends and family members, I realised that it had really become a story book. I had been so heavily immersed in the world of the fox’s magical garden, that I felt it deserved to be a book that needed to exist beyond the year of 2025. Once this decision was made, I set about adding extra pages, to make sure there was more of a beginning, middle and end. Box of Treasures is really fox’s adventure, but of course it raises a lot of questions about who buried the box in the first place, who collected the treasures and who they belonged to. While I feel that I will start to answer these in a possible future story (I’m not ready to give this up yet!), I love the idea that you, the viewer, will create your own versions.

As a child I liked to draw stories and create narratives purely for my own pleasure. When my family started to take an interest in what I was up to, that was the first time that I really started to think of an “audience”. It’s something I almost immediately dismissed however, because to create something FOR an audience means to start to self-edit and second guess why you do what you do. It takes away that organic process, the uniqueness of you creating your art. As I moved through the educational system, I started to learn what it would be like to illustrate or make art as a career. By the time I’d reached University, it was part of everyday life to offer my work up for a critique by my peers, to be taught how to create work in the right way that would appeal to the right people who would then decide whether your work was right for their audience. Is it any wonder that those carefree, joyful days of creating as a child seem to disappear the moment that you try to embark on a creative career? Your brain starts to suggest wild notions that you aren’t good enough to do the job you want because of a rejection (or several!) You start to compare yourself to other artists that you admire, even though you are a completely different person with unique life experiences and original ways of thinking and creating. As an adult, these feelings never truly go away, but I am learning to trust in my creative process by looking back on the last 5 years and realising that there is progress in my growth as an illustrator.

Picture books are a way for me to create a world that I would like to live in. Each book I make invites you to step into my world and become part of it. There are messages within all the books that I’ve done, but essentially their value lies in entertainment and escapism. The Greatest Cake (pub. 2019) is about living your dream, The Peg People (pub. 2020) is about childhood anxieties, Bonnie’s Ball (pub. 2021) is about enjoying the little things in everyday life and Wooglefog (pub. 2022) is about kindness and empathy. Box of Treasures (available to buy now) is about the things we collect which have meaning and the magic they hold for us. Television shows like BBC’s The Repair Shop and various antique shows, prove that there is an endless fascination for audiences who are interested in the stories behind objects. Even though there are no words in Box of Treasures, I think the story is accessible to everybody and appeals to people of all ages. I tell people that I make “children’s picture books”, but the truth is, I make them for myself, and I hope that you and your children get just as much out of them as I do. I’m a 39-year-old woman who is always striving to bring back that childlike wonder of the world through my illustrations…because if I’m honest, it’s never really left me.

Box of Treasures is a 40-page A5 landscape picture book published locally by Moorleys Print & Publishing, here in Derbyshire, UK. Each book comes with a handmade box book sleeve, so that the spine sits neatly on a bookshelf. Each book is gift wrapped in matching tissue paper, ribbon and stickers, and can also be signed by myself (just let me know the name you would like it signed to when purchasing).

Also available as a calendar for 2025.