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Be curious, pay attention to details, says Tohby Riddle

As an illustrator and writer based in Australia, Riddle has created numerous award-winning picture books and English writing guides, the latest of which, The Greatest Gatsby, has just been released.

Sharjah — Children’s writer and illustrator, Tohby Riddle thrilled an audience of school children and adults on Monday at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival 2015 taking place at the Sharjah Expo Centre until May 2.

As an illustrator and writer based in Australia, Riddle has created numerous award-winning picture books and English writing guides, the latest of which, The Greatest Gatsby, has just been released. He spoke to an audience of over 200 school-aged children about his inspiration in creating children’s books and advised children on how to make a start in a writing career.

He said: “The important thing to do is read a lot yourself and aside from that, be curious. Keep a notebook and add to it regularly, anything that interests you or inspires you. From there great story ideas and characters can develop. It’s also important to notice things, pay attention to details in life that you find interesting as these can add flavour and texture to a story. Finally, remember to look at things differently, search for a new perspective on a fact or story. For example when I heard that foxes are one of the only wild creatures in the world that can make a life for themselves in cities, I saw the book’s first illustration — a fox snoozing in an armchair with a cup of tea and a pile of books close at hand.”

The image became Nobody Owns the Moon, an illustrated children’s book about Clive Prendergast, a fox with a regular job and a place to call home.

Children attending his talk from Sharjah Indian School and Emirates National School of Sharjah spoke about finding it useful, inspirational and very helpful. Varinda Pradip, 15, from Sharjah Indian School said: “I found this talk to be very inspirational and helpful, especially the questions Tohby answered about becoming a writer. I think it’s interesting to discover how the process works and what he does in constructing his lovely books.”

Charlotte Lewis, 16, and also from Sharjah Indian School said: “It’s very interesting to learn about the writing and illustrating process. I enjoyed hearing about how he finds his inspiration and how we can start that same process through note keeping and recording interesting everyday facts and events. This was a fun and fascinating talk to attend at the festival.”

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