Local Tasmanian author and illustrator, Dani Colvin provides insights into how past connections to children’s books has now culminated in the publication of her first picture book, I Believe in You.
My return to the world of children’s books is proving to be a fascinating one.
For 16 years, until 2014, I wrote a children’s literature review column in The Sunday Tasmanian. For 12 years, I was a teacher aide (for two of those years, I ran a primary school library), and for 15 years, I was mum to two school-aged boys who were voracious readers.
Over these years, I was immersed in the world of children’s books, and it was wonderful. But the column ended, I changed jobs, the boys grew up, and life moved in another direction.
However, many years later, as a debut author and illustrator of a picture book, here I stand again, two feet planted in the children’s literature landscape, and I’m scanning the terrain to try to understand how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same.
I must confess that, only 92 days in, (today I celebrate my book’s 3-month birthday), I don’t have a definitive answer, but I’m very much enjoying the journey of (re)discovery.
Some quick thoughts:
1. Over these last three months, I have visited several dozen bookshops, and found them to be busy, vibrant places full of passionate people - both the staff and the customers. Many bookstores put in a lot of effort to remain engaged and engaging in different ways, from including cafes or running craft classes, to hosting special events and participating in campaigns like Love Your Bookstore Day. This makes them feel more like community hubs than ever before. They are physically gorgeous spaces with a kind of buzz about them that is appealing and infectious. I do hope they’re doing ok.
2. Obviously a lot has happened in the tech world in recent years, and I’m reading articles like a recent Courier Mail piece pondering the impact of smart phones on children’s reading, comprehension, writing and deductive ability, with one in three students across the country still falling short of the national literacy and numeracy benchmarks.
I’m pretty sure the reasons for our educational woes are a lot more nuanced and complex than ‘kids don’t even text using words, they just use emojis and acronyms.’ Economic disadvantage, parents who didn’t complete high school, and numerous other social and systemic factors are surely at play here. But I do wonder about the impact of screen time on children’s concentration; fast-moving images, bite-sized chunks of information, and lots of bells and whistles probably make the silent practice of reading and absorbing written words on a page seem rather dull for children already struggling. I’ve been told about the rise in the popularity of graphic novels; is this because kids need the images to keep them engaged in text, or is it nothing more than kids of my generation loving Richie Rich and Archie comics - as well as books?
3. Still on the subject of tech, I loved watching Anna Funder and Sally Rippin speaking recently to the Senate Select Committee on adopting AI, about the impact of data mining on the book industry, and on authors who are having their life’s work stolen and stripped for parts.
I am not sure how any of this will work out, but I do know how happy I am to return to this world of writers and creators, and passionate people who still believe in the power of books to change lives.
Dani Colvin
Author/illustrator
Instagram: @danicolvinbooks
FB: https://www.facebook.com/people/Dani-Colvin-author-illustrator/61578470721165/
Editor's note: I Believe in You is a heart-warming and uplifting picture book. Read a review here.
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