A journey to be savoured and shared: Illustrator, Judi Abbot talks about how to get more out of reading picture books with your kids

For artist, Judi Abbot, each book she illustrates is a journey, often lasting three months or longer. First, she reads the manuscript, “starts to understand the characters” and scavenges the text for clues about setting.
“A reference to a scarf can suggest an entire world,” she notes.
Then she experiments with exploratory sketches and researches her characters’ quirks: What equipment would they take to go fishing? Even their favourite snacks may require investigation for an Italian native unfamiliar with peanut butter sandwiches!
She goes on to create storyboards and then reaches for her acrylics to produce the illustrations themselves.
“The first page is a little bit daunting. How do I introduce the characters? After that, it goes faster,” she says.
Finally, a box of books – still smelling of chemical dye and binding glue – arrives at her door.
That’s when the journey for the reader begins — for a journey is exactly how Judi encourages parents and kids to treat the experience of shared reading.
Here are her top tips for getting the most out of your travels through Story Land:

• Before you set off, take time to get your bearings. What can you tell about the story from the front cover? Does the blurb on the back spark your curiosity? If there’s a book jacket, go ahead and peak underneath for hidden design treasures.
• Who are the author and illustrator? Read their names. “It gives maternity and paternity to the book,” says Judi, adding that, “A lot of kids don’t even know what an illustrator is.” Get a feel for these unseen hosts by reading the dedication page. 

• Slow down and spot the details that an illustrator added with thought and care. For example, in illustrating the Willy and Walter series by Bonnie Grubman, Judi cleverly hid a purple spider in every spread.
• Make travel a multi-sensory experience. “I love it when parents touch the book,” says Judi “How do the pages feel? Are they glossy or textured?” If a character cycles up and down a hilly trail, enact their adventure by tracing their path with your finger.
• Amp it up with different voices, accents and gestures. What happens in Story Land stays in Story Land.
• Revisit favourite books to see whether the illustrations tell “a story inside the story.” Judi introduces additional narrative layers through the illustrations and sprinkles her stories with clues about the characters’ broader lives. “I think kids have the capacity to find new stories beneath the story because they can stay on one picture for hours,” she explains. “I remember my kids reading the same book hundreds of times, ” Thus, in the concept book, The Biggest Kiss, by Joanna Walsh, the text does not provide an obvious narrative but Judi’s illustrations introduce a lonely penguin who yearns for a kiss from his parent.
  In search of “The Biggest Kiss”.

• Invite your children to choose their own Story Land destinations. Let them loose in the bookshop to select books for themselves. “Show them different kinds of books, and various styles, and see what they like,” she advises.
• It’s fun to travel together – even when you’re old enough to read by yourself.  At seven and ten, Judi’s kids still snuggle up with her for an occasional picture book, “not every night, but occasionally. A picture book is a book for sharing. It’s for everyone. The older they get, the less togetherness there is, so I like to keep reading with them.”
• It’s freeing to travel alone. Encourage your kids to read solo, so they can go at their own pace, and linger as they choose. It can be as satisfying to see your kids looking through a pile of books in solitude as it is to share a story.
• Finally, encourage children to use a book as inspiration to create something themselves. “What I like is when kids draw about the book after they read it. That for me is the perfect ending to the experience,” Judi says — making the end of one story journey the launchpad for another.

Judi Abbot is the pen name of author illustrator Giuditta Gaviraghi, who lives in London with her husband and two children. She has worked with publishers including Simon and Schuster, Random House and Clavis Publishing. Her projects include Baby Blue (which she also authored), The Biggest Kiss and The Perfect Hug by Joanna Walsh, and the Willie and Walter series by Bonnie Grubman. Judi’s lastest release, Forever Star (August, 2021), authored by Gareth Peters, is about a gay couple rearing a foster child.