WRITING FOR CHILDREN
TRUE STORIES
Amy Sparkes talks to author Clare Helen Welsh about writing narrative non-fiction picture books
Clare Helen Welsh is a primary school teacher and award-winning picture book author. She has recently moved into writing narrative nonfiction for children, which involves using storytelling skills to make real life stories come alive for young readers.
You’ve had a busy year so far. What have you been up to?
It has definitely been busy, but busy in the best way! I kicked off the year as the picture book Writer in Residence for Write Mentor, which means I have the pleasure of providing monthly webinars and live workshops on all elements of picture book craft (from narrative arcs to character to voice) for twelve months. So far, it’s been a lot of fun. I really enjoy interacting with the writing community and helping writers along their journey, passing on all the useful things I’ve learned and those things that I wish I’d known sooner.
And April saw the release of my seventh picture book (seventh?! I almost can’t believe it.) Wee? It Wasn’t Me! is a narrative non-fiction tale, illustrated by the brilliant Nicola O’Byrne and published by Macmillan. It’s the second story about Lenny the ring-tailed lemur, who is on holiday in Alaska when he slips in something wet and yellow and smelly… then he sets off to find the stinky, smelly puddle-piddler. It’s full of giggles and facts, too. To launch the book, we took Lenny on a tour of UK schools with independent bookshop, Stories By The Sea, that included tongue twisters, a lemur quiz and fun draw-a-long.