Camilla Reid is the author and creator some of the market’s most enduring and engaging early years children’s books. From her charming stories to her innovative, interactive board-books, Camilla’s titles are above all designed to be delightful and fun for families to share.
As a passionate campaigner for early years reading, Camilla believes that the daily habit of cuddling up together with a book which entertains and inspires – even if it’s for just 5 minutes – is the key to a positive school experience and to better life chances.
“I truly believe that instilling a love of reading in a tiny child is the closest you can get to giving them a superpower!"
A mum at heart
Becoming a mum for the first time in 2005 proved to be a turning point for Camilla as a writer. Sharing books with her daughters was both inspiring and eye-opening. It taught her what makes a great children’s book – and what makes a bad one, too!
She realised that the best books are the ones that the child connects with emotionally – and that engagement is achieved via the words, the images and the novelty in combination. To put the child reader at the heart of the book became Camilla’s principal aim when writing and devising her titles.
She also noticed that, as a parent, the books she preferred to read with her kids were the ones that she herself enjoyed and found attractive – so she never forgets the adult who’s sharing the book. It’s important that they’re having fun, too!
What matters to Camilla
Research has shown that children who grow up being read to and sharing books with key adults have better life outcomes, irrespective of social or economic background. Early years books have a powerful effect on a child’s cognition; they foster speech and language skills, focus and concentration – and they develop a sense of empathy, curiosity and self-confidence, too. Plus, of course, they lay the foundations for all the reading that a child will go onto do at school.
As someone who might have produced the very first book that a child ever reads, Camilla takes that responsibility very seriously. She believes that every title should be as entertaining and rich as it possibly can be, so that the child quickly trusts books to deliver interest and fun.
For Camilla, the most important thing is that children want to read her books again and again. Once they’ve put a book down, her hope is that they will want to pick up another one, which will lead to the next, and the next. And, if Camilla has done her job well, by the time they reach school, each child will be motivated to learn to read for themselves and grow to become confident, independent readers.
The creative process
Every book has a slightly different genesis, but Camilla’s concepts tend to start with a very simple idea – a title, a rhyme, a catchphrase or a character – which inspires her. At that point she will get to work in a sketchbook, thinking about how the idea can be turned into a book.
Camilla writes ‘straight’ 32-page picture books like the Pip and Posy stories. But she often chooses to add novelty features to her concepts (for example, flaps to lift or sliders to push) because she believes it helps very young readers to connect with the book.
The next stage is to create a paper dummy which will have sketches, a first draft of text and moving parts, so Camilla can get an idea of how the book will work as a reading experience.
Once the dummy is working well and she feels it’s ready to share, that’s when the collaborations – with the editor, the designer and the illustrator – really get going. For although Camilla always has a vision and a strong sense of the direction of the book, it is the energy and ideas that come from working with the wider team that creates the magic!
