For this blog post, author and illustrator Tatyana Feeney tells us all about the inspiration for and creation of her latest picture book, Mr Wolf Goes to the Ball.
Mr Wolf Goes to the Ball is the second installment in the Mr Wolf series. For anyone who isn’t familiar with Mr Wolf from his first story, Socks for Mr Wolf, he is a carefree and charismatic character who follows his own path. I knew after writing his first book that I really wanted Mr Wolf to have a second one but it took a while to figure out what his next story would be.
I’m not exactly sure where the inspiration for his second book came from. I think it was in the post-Covid time when people were starting to go to events like weddings and debs and I had the idea that a ball could be part of the new Mr Wolf story.
Once I had this starting point, I knew that if Mr Wolf were to go to a ball he would definitely want to wear a dress. I didn’t write this with any other agenda, this is just Mr Wolf’s character, he would like having something beautiful to wear and to dance in. The more I thought about the idea, the more I thought it would also be a good way to connect with changing attitudes towards children and people who want to express themselves in ways that are different to what has been considered the ‘norm’.
My intention was to celebrate Mr Wolf himself, with the hope that his story would give strength and encouragement to anyone who has doubts about how they choose to express themselves.
Continue reading “Mr Wolf Goes to the Blog”
This week, author Erika McGann and illustrator Gerry Daly tell us all about their latest picture book, Wee Donkey’s Treasure Hunt, particularly, how this mischievous and cheeky donkey came to life and how her adventure developed. 
A couple of years later I was finishing up a series for older kids and looking to submit a new project to O’Brien Press. I was dying to do something just for the fun of it, and it finally seemed time to give the rhyming children’s book a go. I’d recently worked on Where Are You, Puffling? with Ger, and I thought another adorable animal protagonist would be great craic to write. I searched images of cute animals for a bit of inspiration and came across a brilliant photo of a wide-smiling wee donkey with her nose pressed up against the camera lens. She made me laugh, and I figured I’d found the right character to work with – cheeky, loveable, and great for a giggle.
Author and illustrator, Bex Sheridan, tells us all about the inspiration for her gorgeous new picture book, Go to Sleep, Hoglet!
What inspired you to write and illustrate Barney Goose – A Wild Atlantic Way Adventure?
Juliette Saumande is a French writer based in Dublin. She has published over 40 books in French and English. When she’s not writing, she can be found translating books, reading books, recommending books, talking about books and building forts with books. She enjoys things like tapdancing and liquorice, but hates Crunchies with a passion. Come and say ‘hi’ at juliettesaumande.blogspot.ie 
So I’ve been here for well over ten years, reading, writing, translating, chatting, making friends and making it even harder to feel lost or lonely. And after all that time, I still feel quite excited about the city, the new bits, the old bits, the eating places, the meeting places. My favourite haunts, if you can call it that, are Dublin buses. I’ve had some of my best ideas on the number 78 (as was), some of my best rants on the 7 and the elusive 68, some of my strangest conversations with total strangers on the 13 or 40 (about the weather, food, books, kids… or what the Irish use their churches for these days).
And I’ve had some of the best views over the city, just above pedestrian level (because, obviously, the whole point of a double-decker bus is to sit upstairs, right at the front where possible). From up there you can see beyond fancy hedges and building site fences, into first-floor shops and balconies, on top of people’s heads and bus stops (where you sometimes make interesting discoveries)…