As many of you will already know, over the last couple of months we've been busy crowdfunding, to raise £5,000 so we can gift 1,000 copies of our latest book, How Frank Helped Hank, to UK primary schools.
I almost can't belive I get to type this, but we did it! We raised over £5,000 via Boys Cry Too: Let's Change the Message. And this means we can now gift those 1,000 copies of our award-winning book, to key stage one classrooms, around the UK. And change the messages that children receive. Because it's ok not to be ok. It's ok for boys to cry too. And the best first step to feeling better is to talk about it.
If you're a primary school reading this, and you haven't emailed us yet then please do ASAP and let us know if you'd like a copy.
We are so proud this week, to have played a small part in a wonderful campaign for Save the Children UK.
Launched in the US by Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams and led in the UK by Save the Children Ambassador, Poppy Delevingne, every donation to Save with Stories will help raise urgent funds for the children and families who’ve been hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, both in the UK and around the world.
Last week Cara read our second award-winning rhyming story, The Queen Engineer, which has so far been watched by over 40,000 people on Instagram and over 7000 on FaceBook.
Every penny helps, so if you can, please, text the word STORIES to 70008 to make a one-off donation of £5.
Earlier in the month our first book, She’s Not Good for a Girl, She’s Just Good! was also read for the charity, by Peaky Blinders Star, Annabelle Wallace.
It’s an amazing campaign, and we are so very delighted to have been a part of it.
This year World Book Day is on Thursday 7th March. Now there aren’t many of us who would challenge how important books and reading are for children! But I know lots of parents probably think of it as a day when they have to spend money on a random dress up outfit; that won’t fit in a year’s time. In fact the wonderful Scummy Mummies once called it, World Amazon Prime Day! I imagine Jeff does do rather well in the week leading up to WBD as parents across the land (well, globe) scramble to get that prime order in at the last minute!
In fact, WBD is a wonderful charity with a mission to to ensure that every child has a book of their own. Research by the National Literacy Trust in 2017 found that 1 in 11 UK children do not have a book of their own at home, and this rises to 1 in 8 for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Director of the NLT, Jonathan Douglas said, “that book ownership in this country is really strongly linked to literacy issues and social mobility.” He went on to discuss that children who don’t own books are less likely to have positive experiences of reading, less likely to do well at school, less likely to send emails or read websites, and thus grow up with a disadvantage in the modern world.
To combat this, the World Book Day charity send millions of book tokens (almost 15 million!) to children and young people in the UK. And of course, to add a fun element and encourage children to read more, and to celebrate books, authors and illustrators, children get to dress up as their favourite book character, and share their book with their classmates! And this is when parents go, ahhhh!!
So! with that in mind we came up with a few easy ideas to dress up as the wonderful Florence from our books.
All it takes is a striped dress and a pair of white sneakers!
Or if you fancy dressing up as Florence when she’s all grown up and is The Queen Engineer, all you need is any blue dress (last years’ Cinderella, Elsa (or even Matilda), and a pair of red wellies and a construction hat!
Whoever and whatever your children dress up as this World Book Day, please do all enjoy it, and enjoy reading your favourite books. And remember: a book is for life not just World Book Day!!
Please note: none of the brands mentioned have in any way sponsored or endorsed this post. They are not affiliate links and this is not an AD.
This year’s International Women’s Day is on Friday 8th March. Some people may (will) ask, why do we need an international women’s day? What about an international men’s day? Well. First of all, there is an IMD: it’s on 19th November. And secondly, whenever anyone responds to just about any question with, what about, you pretty much have answered the question as to why you needed it in the first place!
See IWD isn’t about men; it’s about celebrating women. Their achievements. Their acts of courage and determination. Their attempts to create change and a more equal world for everyone. So if you make it about men, by asking what about, then you’re missing the point altogether.
It’s like someone doing a sponsored run for Cancer Research, and saying, but what about heart disease? But, what about it? In choosing to run for research in cancer, we’re not ignoring heart disease. This sponsored run is for cancer research, because for this moment time, we want to focus on that. Doesn’t mean heart disease doesn’t exist, or isn’t worthy of our attention. Just right now, we’re focussing on cancer research.
But more often than not, people don’t say things like that. When you set up your Just Giving page and share it with friends and family, they either donate, or they don’t. Rarely would anyone openly challenge your decision to run 10k, and donate the sponsorship money to a worth while cause. But so often, when you say you’re a feminist, or that you’re celebrating a female focused event, like IWD, people challenge your thinking, and often, in the way they challenge, they make it about men.
But as we’ve already said, IWD is about celebrating women. Though it officially became recognised in 1975 by the United Nations, there were a number of celebrations and days of observance dating back to 1909, when a National Women’s Day was held in New York. And in 1914, on March 8th, there was a march from Bow in East London to Trafalgar Square in support of woman’s suffrage. This was also the day that Sylvia Pankhurst (Emmeline’s daughter) was arrested outside Charing Cross Station, on her way to speak in Trafalgar Square. So it’s rather fitting that we chose International Woman’s Day, to celebrate the launch our collaboration with Cotton Twist: a make your own Emmeline Pankhurst peg doll.
So on this International Women’s Day, I shall be thinking about Emmeline and all the brave women who stood by her side, campaigning for a woman’s right to vote. So much has changed since then, and there are still so many amazing women (and men) today, lobbying and creating positive change for future generations of girls and boys. And that is certainly something to celebrate.
The make your own Emmeline Pankhurst peg doll is a Thea Chops Books collaboration with Cotton Twist, and the first in their Wonderful Women range.
In December 2017 we hosted a panel event called Raising Humans. We talked to two guest speakers (from Let Toys Be Toys and These Two Dudes) about why they believe gender equality is important for our children and why it starts when kids are young. It was a really great morning of fascinating information and interesting discussion.
So we decided to do it again!
On Tuesday 5th June we’re holding Raising Humans Over Supper, an opportunity to hear and discuss equality in childhood with Olivia Dickinson from Let Toys be Toys and Alex Mees from These Two Dudes, while enjoying the wonderful home cooked food from Salvation Suppers Chef, Susan Foynes. It will take place at Space @ 61 in SE15, and start at 7:30pm. So it’s an opportunity to leave the kids at home, forget about your day and feed both your brain and stomach all while meeting some wonderful people.
The format for the event is:
19:30 welcome drinks and canapés
20:15 sit down and a brief intro to the night
20:30 our delicious main course will served
21:30 pudding and panel discussion, followed by mint tea and questions
23:00 carriages / uber / shank’s pony / the number 343 to Peckham Rye station
We’d love to have you join us for what we know will be a wonderfully delicious and interesting evening. All you have to do is BYOB, and click on the image below to buy your ticket! Seats are limited so do grab one before they all go!
We can’t tell you how excited we are that
She’s Not Good for a Girl, She’s Just Good!
has been turned into an activity book!
You can now create your very own version of the award winning book!
As well as colouring in the story of Florence and Frank, there are lots of questions to think about and answer – just enough to keep the little Chops in your life busy over the Easter break!
Thank you again for being part of the Thea Chops Books journey!
I love to write, but drawing? Nope, that I can not do! How I wish I could draw, or paint or sketch…. I’m a words person, and this book needed a pictures person! Enter stage left: Jacquie Hughes
SH: Jacquie where does your inspiration come from?
JH: Inspiration can come from so many places. I keep sketchbooks which I fill with drawings (from life and imagination), notes, collage, images torn from magazines and technique experiments. Most of these aren’t seen by anyone else but I use them as a starting point or resource for work. I love to read and sometimes a story or poem will inspire me.
SH: Can you tell me a bit about the draft stage, when you’re creating the characters?
JH: I love this stage of the work because it involves big sheets of paper and a lot of relaxed, almost unconscious drawing, which is reigned in a bit later when I find the strongest drawings. It’s quite a magical process bringing a character from my imagination and making them ‘real’ on paper. Bringing other people’s characters to life is a different but equally enjoyable process. I’m always a little bit nervous when I first show my sketches to a writer but I enjoy collaborating because another person’s input can push you out of your comfort zone. I also enjoy researching clothes and objects that are associated with characters.
SH: How do you use colour in your work?
JH: If I’m entirely honest I’m more confident with drawing than I am with colour but I’m constantly developing my sense of colour by looking at paintings and photography. If I see a colour combination that really works (regardless of the subject matter) I replicate it in swatches in my sketchbook, using gouache. Then I have a little store to dip into. Sometimes I work more intuitively than this though and sometimes a writer will have their own ideas about colours that they’d like you to use, which is great.
SH: Can you tell me a bit about the type of work you do?
JH: I work in traditional media. For this project [She’s Not Good for a Girl, She’s Just Good!] I’m using watercolours and colour pencils. I also like to use mixed media, combining paint with collage, printmaking techniques, charcoal, inks and colour pencils. There’s something about the mish-mash of textures and line really excites me. I recently tried a friend’s I-Pad Pro which was a revelation and I’m currently saving for my own so I may move into more digital work.
And the results of this are all the amazingly beautiful illustrations that you can see in She’s Not Good for a Girl, She’s Just Good!
Jacquie thanks for being a part of Thea Chops Books’ first ever book!
When you opt for a career change, sometimes you go on a course or retrain. But when one day you decide to take a rhyming story you’ve written, and self publish, all of a sudden you find yourself wearing many hats.
For the last month or so, Jacquie has been working away at the illustrations, bringing the book to life beautifully. And I’ve been getting my head around everything else that goes into publishing a book and setting up a company. From finding an accountant, to finding out about ISBN numbers and barcodes. From working out a marketing plan, to working out how many books to print. I’m not just a writer any more: I’m a supplier; a retailer; a small business owner; a decision maker. And not that I hold too much sway with star signs, but as someone who is apparently classic Libra, decision making is not my strong suit. What if there’s a better one / another way / a tastier dish (food envy is the worst!).
But each time I sit down, I work through my list, and I have to tell myself, you’ve got this, you can do this. I don’t always tell myself this of course. Sometimes I freak out! Sometimes the self doubt creeps in and I wonder what on earth I’m doing. But just as when my daughter, recently turned four, struggles to do something, and I see her becoming frustrated or giving up, I tell her to keep trying. To keep going. Not to quit. Just ask for help and try again.
Advice I really should keep applying to myself. In life, you don’t know until you know. And if you don’t know something, if you don’t know how, there are always people who can help. You just have to ask. As the great Andrea Beaty says, through the words of Rosie Revere, Engineer, ‘the only true failure can come if you quit.’
From small acorns, grow mighty oaks, said a wise person once. Most things in life begin small, look at babies! And so it is with Thea Chops Books. We’re small right now, and certainly our beginnings are even smaller! But it’s a start. It begins.
I’ve been writing rhyming children’s stories for fun since my daughter was tiny. I’ve always loved books: as a child I could hide away for hours with my head in a book. And I always loved making up stories too, and remember feeling so proud one day when a teacher selected one of my pieces to read out to the class. I do sometimes wonder why I didn’t go on to study English or creative writing, but it was not meant to be I guess. Until now!
So here we are: the company is set up, as is the website and all of my preferred social media channels. A fabulous illustrator is on board and is in the process of creating beautiful drawings to bring the story to life. And support for the book. and the concept of the company (to produce entertaining but empowering stories that show boys and girls as equals) has been nothing short of amazing. I started the year, somewhat reluctantly doing some crowdfunding to help pay for the publication of the book (I say reluctantly as I was convinced for weeks that no one would want to pledge or be interested – imposter syndrome eh?! We know all about that!). And honestly, I was blown away by the support I received from friends, family and many complete strangers! People everywhere are really on board with the idea that we should begin teaching our children about equality from a young age, that the words we use and the messages we send are so so powerful, and impact so much. Just look at the recent Women’s March: an historic day when millions of men, women and children across the globe marched to raise awareness for an equal world, and the need to protect legislation for human rights.
So here we are. I’m set up, and I’m doing this. I’m stepping so far out of my comfort zone that I want to step right back inside again! But too late! The cat is out of the bag and the beans are spilled!
