Inspiring story-telling with Carly Gledhill's picture book, Pencil's Best Story Ever

About Author

Carly Gledhill joins ReadingZone to introduce Pencil's Best Story ever, a picture book about creating stories, friendship and adventures!

Carly channels her love of colour, character design and hand-drawn lettering into everything she creates, from children's books to surface pattern designs. As a child, Carly loved redrawing characters from her favourite children's books and 90s television shows.

Carly lives in Manchester. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, running (sort of), playing netball, collecting kids' books, listening to hardcore punk music and devouring true crime podcasts.

Interview

August 2025

Pencil has written his best story ever with his friends as the main characters - but they don't want to get eaten by Bear, taken away by a huge, orange Octopus or be smushed by a giant Snowball. Can Pencil do what his friends want, and still write his best ever story?

Pencil's Best Story Ever (Post Wave Children's Books) is a story about creating stories, getting the best beginning, middle and ending, and being a better friend.

ReadingZone spoke with Carly Gledhill to find out more about how the story was created, and how to use Pencil's story to encourage children to create their own best ever stories!

Q&A with Carly Gledhill: Creating stories and inspiring storytelling with Pencil's Best Story Ever

"I'm not a natural story writer, but imagining characters or friends playing parts in a story is really fun."

1. How did you become a children's author and illustrator?

After studying for a degree in textile design, I got a job designing children's clothing for a high street retailer. I realised I really enjoyed designing the graphics and prints for the clothing, so decided to leave and join a print studio, designing prints for children's products. While I was doing this, I kept having ideas for stories and characters that I wanted to create a world for, so I wrote a picture book, got an agent and went from there!

2. What happens in your new book, Pencil's Best Story Ever?

The story is written and narrated by Pencil who has recruited his best mates Peanut and Jelly to play the characters. Unfortunately for them, Pencil has written an adventure story with too many twists and turns, which forces them to interrupt the flow and demand a re-write. It's an adventure story that involves a bear, peas, a giant snowball, toasted marshmallows and a humongous octopus.

3. What inspired you to take a closer look at how stories are created with this picture book?

A lot of my stories follow quite a basic structure of beginning, middle, twist and ending. Because I'm not a natural writer this format works for me, with this book I wanted to deconstruct that slightly and play around with the structure.

I came to this book with the three main characters in mind, they are really silly and I wanted it to be really funny. The idea that pencil would write the story and his friends would star in it allowed me to do that and get away with anything, because it was all Pencil's idea!

The characters all have their own personalities and they're strong willed, the idea of some of the characters not being OK with the narrative and forcing the story to change gave me an opportunity for humour, but also to show a less rigid approach to creativity and ideas.

Pencil is very set on telling his story exactly how he's written it and has to stop his ego getting in the way of adapting it to make his friends comfortable.

4. Why did you choose to have a Pencil, Peanut and Jelly as your main characters in this picture book, with Pencil telling the story?

I don't think I had much choice, I'd drawn these character together and knew that they would be a lot of fun to work with and that they'd need to feature in my next picture book!

They are extremely random but it made sense to make Pencil the narrator for this one; he's clever and a bit of a nerd, he's the opposite of the cute and naive Jelly and timid but playful Peanut! I'd love to let Peanut and Jelly have a go at writing their own stories too.

5. There are lots of moments for children to help predict what might happen next in this story. How do you envisage your picture book being shared with children - and what do you think will make them laugh the most?

A lot happens in this book, I think it would be lovely to read it carefully and discuss how the characters are feeling and what each page turn might reveal. It would be excellent if read by a narrator who can do different voices for the characters; little readers could also play the parts of Bear, Peanut and Jelly and read their lines out.

There are lots of funny moments and background bits to spot, but my favourite is the octopus page. At this point in the story the characters have had quite enough of Pencil and where his story is taking them. They are all stuck in a boat, and each has a different reaction to the danger they are in!

6. Pencil does get a bit carried away in creating his story - but do you hope his creative streak might help inspire children in writing their own adventures?

I do hope so! As I mentioned earlier, I'm not a natural story writer, but imagining characters or friends playing parts in a story is really fun. Taking three people or even pets that you know and sending them on an adventure is a fun way of making up a story!

7. Pencil's Best Story Ever is also about friendship and teamwork. How well does Pencil do on these?

Although he gets really carried away his heart is in the right place. He wants to live out his best story ever, but when he realises that his friends are upset by some of his plot lines, he's able to adapt his story and carry on without getting too upset.

It's something all creative people have to learn, how to take on feedback without taking it personally. Maybe Pencil is actually just me!

8. You're trained as an illustrator, so do you create your characters before you start to write your text? How do your stories develop and what tips would you give to young creators?

I usually have characters in mind before I start to write a narrative. It helps me to know what the character will be and what traits I can use in the story. If a character can fly or swim or is really clever or funny, these can all be used as extra detail for the story.

I break the story down into four parts, beginning and middle which all lead up to the twist. This is the drama, the peril, the reason the reader wants to read on! This then resolves up to the ending.

My top tip would be to write a story that you really enjoy, write a book for you! It could be about something you like doing or something you find funny, then, hopefully it should be really enjoyable to do!

9. How did you approach the illustrations for Pencil's Best Story Ever? Do you decide on a style of illustration before you start to work on the drawings? How do you create your images?

I make my images on Photoshop using a mixture of digital drawing layered with hand painted textures, it's a bit like a collage on screen. The illustrations needed to be bold and fairly simple, without overly complex backgrounds and too much detail to distract from the story. There's a lot of story to get through! I can't resist adding flowers and little insects to everything I draw too, so there's some of them in there too.

We also had the idea to place Pencil's narrated story text on lined paper, to make it obvious that it is Pencil's story being told. I had fun designing the end papers for this book, they are from Pencil's version of the story he wrote, with some clues to what happens in the story!

10. What do you enjoy doing when you're away from your studio? Where do you go to seek out inspiration for more stories?

I'm currently training for two half marathons, so I'm doing a lot of running, which I sort of enjoy. I play netball for two different teams here in Manchester, I love netball it's so fun to play. I also go to gigs, watch football and enjoy gardening. My studio over looks my garden so I'm always getting distracted by plants that need watering or moving or pruning.

Inspiration usually comes when I'm not looking for it, I think when my brain switches off from work, that's when it gets creative. My best ideas come when I'm out walking my dog, running or in the shower!

Creative Challenge: How can children create their own 'best story ever' with Pencil telling it?

Pick two characters to star in your story alongside Pencil, these could be people you know pets or completely made up like Peanut and Jelly! Your story begins where you are now, whether you're at home, on the bus or at school, this is your starting point.

Now, thinking about adventure, use your imagination here … where does Pencil go next? It could be anywhere! How do your characters react to this, the middle of your story.

Now we know all the characters and a little bit about their personalities we need some peril now. How do your characters get into danger, what is the danger and how do they react to it? Are they brave like Bear or are they scared like Peanut?

Is your Pencil kind and do they rewrite the story for them? How does this resolve for the ending, Is it a happy ending and are the characters still friends at the end?

School Visits: What can schools expect in a visit from you, and how can they get in touch to arrange their own event?

Yes in person events are something I'm going to be working on later this year and aiming to roll out for 2026, please email: [email protected] for details!

About Author

Interview

Author's Titles