Meet our 2021 Shortlist: I'm Sticking With You by Smriti Halls and Steve Small

Hurrah - it’s time to explore another book from our #OBP21 shortlist! Today we are looking at I’m Sticking With You by Smriti Halls and Steve Small, published by Simon & Schuster Children’s Books. To celebrate this fantastic book we have a brilliant Q&A from both of its creators, and a fantastic doodle from Steve. In fact, here that is, now!

About the Book:

Wherever you're going, I'm going too.
Whatever you're doing, I'm sticking with you.

It's wonderful to have good friends to see you through the good times and the bad. But sometimes, friends can also be a bit . . . well . . . overbearing. Through stunning illustrations and rhyming text, I'm Sticking With You explains the complexities of relationships and how sometimes even the best of friends can have a sticky moment!

This is a gorgeously funny, feel-good book about everything a friendship can be from best-selling Smriti Halls and BAFTA award nominated director and debut illustrator Steve Small.

What the Judges Said "The clarity and simplicity of the design and illustration is very striking, yet the pictures are emotional and funny. Similarly the writing is brilliantly simple but gripping. I enjoyed the tension between text and illustrations - it's a perfectly balanced picture book." - Axel Scheffler

About Smriti:

Smriti Halls is the international bestselling author of over 30 books for children. Before becoming a full time writer in 2012, she worked in children's publishing and television. She's now been published in more than 30 languages from Arabic to Afrikaans and from Catalan to Korean. She lives in London, UK with her husband and three children.

www.smriti.co.uk Follow Smriti on Twitter @SmritiPH

About Steve:

Steve Small has worked in animation for over 30 years as a director, designer and animator. The work has varied from working on Disney features to designing and directing shorts, TV series and commercials with Studio AKA. I'm Sticking With You is the first picture book he has illustrated.

www.studioaka.co.uk/AboutUs/SteveSmall

Smriti and Steve have kindly answered our many questions about what the best things are about I’m Sticking With You! Please read on to discover why they think picture books are so fabulous, and what they liked reading when they were little….and who is more Bear, and who is more Squirrel!

Thank you so much, Smriti and Steve!

What was your own favourite picture book as a child?

Smriti: One of my favourites was a Richard Scarry nursery rhyme collection that I still love. The playful verses are accompanied by hilarious cats and dogs in dinner jackets and raincoats. It’s endlessly enjoyable, with a glorious palette of deep pink and bright green. There’s a gorgeous inscription that my parents wrote in the front of the book when they gave it to me on my 3rd birthday which, decades later, makes it more precious than rubies.

Steve: I loved the Dean’s Gift Books of Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes.

What do you think the best thing about picture books is?

Smriti: I love the wonderful shared space that a picture book creates for a child and adult reader together. A moment where time stands still and where some of the most treasured childhood memories are made. I also love the way that picture books demand to be read aloud, over and over, and often become so beloved that they are known by heart.

 Steve: I love how a good picture book re-imagines the world with new characters in a completely new setting. Page after page you encounter an unfolding story that is unlike anything else and yet completely convincing. Then at some point, often not until the very end, you realise that the folk in this story are dealing with the same things as you.

I can’t count how many times as a kid and as an adult, I have read a story and enjoyed the newness and strangeness of it, and along the way chuckled at the dilemmas the characters face, only to find myself saying ‘ wait a minute, that’s what I do too!’ But by then, I have been living in their world, not mine, and have been thoroughly absorbed in working through the events alongside them, processing their thoughts and feelings. Arriving at that moment when I recognise myself in the story, I often have a new and refreshing perspective from a new vantage point.

What was your favourite thing about writing the book?

Smriti: My favourite thing about writing this book was that the words, the characters and the story felt utterly delightful and delicious to think about – so I was SMILING and LAUGHING to myself the whole time I was writing. Choosing the words felt as satisfying as picking ripe plums – the experience was a total joy – and every word felt completely true.

What was your favourite thing about drawing the book?

Steve: When I drew this story I realised I had been in some situations where I had been more Bear and some where I had been more Squirrel. I related to Bear’s unswerving enthusiasm and ‘all in’ attitude as much as I did to Squirrel’s bruised finer feelings. So when it comes to the crunch, and Squirrel asks for some space, I really felt for both of them. But the thing I enjoyed, was giving these two the opportunity to repair their broken things, and show how, in many ways, things were stronger, even if you could still see the repair job here and there.

What was your inspiration for the story?

Smriti: The idea came from something my youngest son said one morning when he patiently explained to his father, as they were leaving for football practice, that he would NOT be playing. “No,” he announced proudly and lovingly “I’m sticking with YOU, Dad!” It made me roar with laughter – and it made my heart melt at the same time.  I loved the thought of the two of them, tall and small, standing at the side of the pitch, seeing that same situation so differently. And I loved those simple, firm words: “I’m sticking with you” – whether you like it or not – and whether I’m meant to or not!

Steve: I’ve known a few folk like Bear. Big, sturdy people who appear to hardly notice the bumps in the road, but are quietly just as vulnerable as the rest of us. I’ve also known people like Squirrel who can get upset quite quickly, but are just as quick to make amends.

Then you look at the real animals themselves. How tender and tactile a Bear is. And how Squirrels are so graceful and agile, with a tail that gives absolutely everything away, and it’s hard not to admire and learn from them.

What’s the best thing about this book?

Smriti: I love that this story manages to combine big humour with big heart – so that it’s both feelgood and funny at once. These characters have a very real friendship, complete with bumps in the road that we all recognise. I love that we can feel for them and laugh with them – especially at the points where my words and Steve’s fabulous pictures are telling somewhat different stories.

Steve: Its believable, upbeat optimism. We all know how good it is to have great friends, and how awful it is to hurt them. But repairing those rifts can be tough.

In this story, we meet two individuals who have known each other a while and halfway through the book, hit a rather big stumbling block. It’s hard for a while, but luckily, rather than stay in their hurt feelings too long, these two manage to get things back on track.

Importantly for me, everything that was broken, is fixed and repaired, even if the repair still shows. A small reminder to take better care in future. I liked that. 

What are you working on next?

Smriti: I’m delighted to say that Bear and Squirrel will be back later this year in I’M STICKING WITH YOU TOO, and this time they’ll be joined by a flamboyant new character… will they be able to cope with a new friend in the mix? I’m having lots of fun working on further adventures featuring these characters, plus lots of new books too. It’s very exciting.

Steve: I’ve just finished another book with Bear and Squirrel and I’m starting on a story about a small Elephant in a big world.

And finally, what do you think has been the best thing about reading with small children during the lockdown?

Smriti: Reading together has been so brilliant during lockdown. It has brought us all so much laughter and fun (younger and older children included). And listening to each other’s voices and opinions, as well as thinking and laughing together, has been a fantastic way of feeling connected, processing our thoughts and talking about the wider world.

Steve: My partner reads to her niece regularly online. Her niece’s name is Eva and she’s one sharp cookie. The things she sees. She wants to see the front cover, the side and the back. Then they can begin. I often hear how it went, and the first thing I rediscovered right from the get go was that reading to Eva was not an audience situation, where the person sits there quietly and absorbs the story inscrutably. Eva is right there in every page, pointing out what’s funny, what’s weird, and asking questions. And investigating the answers to those questions can take a while. ( clearly a fiendish plot of Eva’s who doesn’t want to it to finish yet).

And when the story is over, if it’s a good one, you read it again. Of course. Then Eva might tell her own stories too. It’s a delightful and renewable exchange and remains as fresh and up to date as each new reading. So the same story can take on new meanings and be a catalyst for new ideas, time after time.

I think it will be a while before we fully know all the ways in which lockdown has placed limitations upon kids, but for all that their natural inquisitiveness has been stifled during this time, reading books and being read to, flings those doors open wide again, and the world gushes in.