Paul Stewart, Author, and Chris Riddell, Illustrator
Monday, March 20, 2006
12:00 PM
Author Paul Stewart and illustrator Chris Riddell have released the seventh in their New York Times best-selling adventure series The Edge Chroncles , "Freeglader."
Stewart and Riddell were online Monday, March 20 at noon ET to answer questions about the new book, the chronicles and how they hope to get middle schoolers -- especially boys -- excited about reading.
Best friends since meeting at their daughters' nursery school 15 years ago, Stewart and Riddell work together to create the words and pictures to tell stories that Publishers Weekly calls "equal parts Dr. Seuss and Lewis Carroll."
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washingtonpost.com: Welcome to our discussion with Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, creators of The Edge series. Publishers Weekly praises these fantasy adventure books as "equal parts Dr. Seuss and Lewis Carroll. Here's a sample from the first book, "Beyond the Deepwoods": "Fromps coughed and spat, quarms squealed, while the great banderbear beat its monstrous hairy chest and yodelled to its mate."
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Harrisburg, Pa.: Are there plans for future chronicles, and if so, how long would you be willing to keep them coming? Good luck, and thank you for assisting in getting younger people to enjoy reading.
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Yes, in Britain we are working on Chronicle number 9 - Clash of the Sky Galleons. We will then finish with book 10, which will tie up all the loose threads. It'll be a really big volume!
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Royal Oak, Mich.: How did you start writing these books together?
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Chris and I met outside the nursery where our two sons went 14 years ago.
Since I was a writer and Chris was an illustrator we decided to have a go at collaborating. It worked well. The Edge Chronicles started off with the map at the beginning of the Twig books. Chris drew it, gave it to me and said "here is the world - what happens in it?" We've been immersed in this world ever since!
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Nashville, Tenn.: My son is a huge fan of Edge books! Thanks for taking questions! Would you ever consider doing a movie based on the books? Live action, like Narnia or Lord of the Rings, or animated? Would Chris do the animation? I hope so!
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Paul: We'd absolutely love the Edge to be turned into a movie, but it has to look as good as Lord of the Rings. We've optioned the books to a British production company who are talking to various U.S. studios.
Chris: We love working on the books and that is what we concentrate on. It's great that the Edge Chronicles encourage kids to read because they don't need much encouragement to go to the movies!
Paul: We'd like the film to be a mix of real actors and CGI.
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Laurel, Md.: The header says one of your motivations is to encourage boys to read.
Most literature written for this age group in the last 10 years has been designed to encourage the empowerment of females. Just like on most TV shows today where women are sensible, capable and strong; men are stupid, brutish, incompetent and selfish.
School literature similarly encourages such sexism by showing how well girls do at tradtionally male activities when not victimized by male oppression.
Does your book do anything to encourage a positive view of male accoplishments and attitudes?
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Chris: In the Edge Chronicles our principle characters, Quint, Twig and Rook, are male. We are two male authors whose primary concerns are the telling of exciting, adventurous stories. The books seem to strike a chord with boys initially, but now our readers are roughly a fifty/fifty mix, which makes us very happy.
Paul: Although the books do not deal with good versus evil, black versus white - or even gender issues specifically - all the characters embody what we consider to be a range of characteristics which makes Edge characters as complex as people in our world.
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Arlington, Va.: Do you have sons? How do they like your books?
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Paul: I have one son called Joseph. (And a daughter called Anna)
Chris: I have two sons. The sixteen year old is William, the ten year old is Jack. I also have a daughter. Katy. I have read the books to all of them and William insists on reading the new books first, before anyone else. Jack really enjoys talking to his friends about the books because of his privileged position.
Paul: Both of us talk to our sons about the books and they have all come up with great suggestions for the stories. And the excellent thing is, we don't have to pay them royalties!
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washingtonpost.com:
You two have collaborated on many other books for children. Can you tell us a little about what else you have worked on? Do you have books for younger readers? Older readers?
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Paul: We have written lots of books together for all ages. We started off with picture books about a rabbit and a hedgehog. The titles are, A little bit of Winter; The Birthday Presents and Rabbit's Wish. We later wrote a series of books about three aliens called the Blobheads, and which kids here may have seen on Nickelodeon when it was turned into a tv series. In addition we wrote a book for 8-12 year olds called Muddle Earth - which is soon to be published over here. As you can see from the title, it was influenced by our love for Lord of the Ring - only our version is Lord of the Teaspoons!
Chris: We're very excited by the imminent US publication of our latest series of books, which is called Far-Flung Adventures. The first one, Fergus Crane, will be in the shops in May. It has a little boy riding a mechanical flying horse on the cover and a secret map inside! Two more - Corby Flood and Hugo Pepper - will be published later in the year. They are for younger readers who are just starting to enjoy chapter books, and are filled with illustrations - at least one on every page.
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Los Angeles: What books did read when you were young?
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Paul: My favourite book as a boy was the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, which I read when I was 10. I decided from that moment on that I wanted to tell stories! The book is beautifully illustrated by Jules Feiffer (possibly misspelt!). It was because of this that it was so good meeting Chris, so that our stories could be illustrated as well.
Chris: I loved the illustrations in Alice in Wonderland, the Wind in the Willows and Winnie the Pooh. I love black and white line art in chapter books, so meeting Paul and being able to collaborate closely on books for children has been a great thrill.
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washingtonpost.com: Why do you think kids like their book series form so much? Seems like there are lots more fantasy series now than 20, 30 or 40 years ago.
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Paul: I'm sure you're right, there are definitely far more series books than when I was a kid. I know that when I was a boy I loved the Narnia books, because I enjoyed returning to the same familiar world. I know that kids who we meet also love returning to the Edgeworld. For us, the nice thing about writing a series is that we can enrich the world constantly. Each of the novels is a stand-alone read and does not have to be read in any specific order - but by returning to different times and place, we have made the world so real that even we feel we have lived there!
Chris: Paul's right. There are a lot of series books out there. We enjoy the form because of the space it gives us to really explore the world we've created and tell complex stories that really engage the reader. The other aspect of the Edge Chronicles that we both really enjoy is the fact that we can fill them with illustrations - something that many other series overlook.
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washingtonpost.com: You can find " Muddle Earth " and " Fergus Crane " at Amazon.com.
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Baltimore, MD: What's a typical work day for you guys? And do you have any advice for writers working on a first novel? Thanks!
Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Paul: Now that my kids are at school, I have a more typical workday. I work about 8 hours a day - though that time can be spread out... My tip would be to read a story out loud to a friend. If he/she yawns, it could be a bit dull. If they say, 'and then what happened?' you're doing fine!
Chris: I spend hours and hours in my studio, which is at the bottom of my garden. I would advise any aspiring writer to make friends with an illustrator - you never know what might happen!
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Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell: Paul: It's been really good taking on-line questions. We're coming to the end of a 3-week tour in the States to promote book 7 of the Edge Chronicles, Freeglader. We've been overwhelmed by the positive response to the series from everyone we've met. It's great to know that we've made a connection with both boy and girl readers here, all across the country.
Chris: We care passionately about the Edge Chronicles and are thrilled when we meet dedicated readers of the series and get a chance to talk about the Edge. We always intended the Edge Chronicles to be a finite series of novels and they have formed themselves into a natural shape. There are three trilogies - the Quint trilogy (Curse of the Gloamglozer, the Winter Knights and Clash of the Sky Galleons), the Twig trilogy (Beyond the Deepwoods, Stormchaser and Midnight over Sanctaphrax) and the Rook trilogy (Last of the Sky Pirates, Vox and Freeglader). Then we shall write the tenth and final book which is as yet untitled, but will be huge in every sense! We look forward to coming back to the States to tell you all about it!
Paul: Meanwhile, we're very excited by the Far-Flung Adventures - Fergus Crane, Corby Flood and Hugo Pepper - which we hope will introduce us to younger readers who will grow into Edge Chronicles fans in due course.
Here's hoping, anyway!
While you're waiting for all these books to come out, there are some
excellent websites you could check out.
1.
2.
kidsatrandomhouse.co.uk/edgechronicles
3.
This has been fun!
Paul and Chris
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