Pat Hutchins
About Author
Pat Hutchins was born Yorkshire, the sixth of seven children. She won a scholarship to Darlington School of Art in 1958 and continued studying illustration at Leeds College of Art, graduating in 1962.
She worked for advertising agency in London until 1966 when she married Laurence Hutchins and moved to New York City for two years. There, she worked on writing and illustrating her first picture book, Rosie's Walk, which was published in 1968.
Pat Hutchins has written novels for early readers, some illustrated by husband Laurence, and more than two dozen picture books. Her work is widely acclaimed; she won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1974 for The Wind Blew.
She also played the role of an artistic narrowboat owner in the classic children's television series, Rosie and Jim. She has two children and four grandsons.
Interview
WHERE, OH WHERE, IS ROSIE'S CHICK?
HODDER CHILDREN'S BOOKS
MAY 2015
Rosie's Walk has been a firm favourite in classrooms and with young children since it was published over 45 years ago. Now, author and illustrator Pat Hutchins has revisited the little red hen in Where, Oh Where, is Rosie's Chick? When her chick disappears, Rosie sets off on another perilous farmyard mission to find it.
Children who have read Rosie's Walk will enjoy identifying the repeated motives in the sequel, including the walk around the farmyard, the reappearance of the fox character, and the humour as each potential disaster is innocently side-stepped by the little chick.
We spoke to Pat Hutchins about why she decided to create a sequel to Rosie's Walk, her style and the appeal of the original story.
Q: Why did you decide the time was right to revisit Rosie's Walk?
A: My editor phoned me and got me quite excited about doing another Rosie book, they were thinking about a counting book possibly with chicks and when she mentioned chicks I thought that it would be nice for Rosie to have a chick and to focus the story around that, rather than counting.
Q: What is it about Rosie's Walk that has helped it to endure for over 40 years?
A: I think that Rosie's Walk has really lasted because the smallest child can read it; even if they don't understand the letters, it's the kind of book they can remember. I remember visiting a school in the US many years ago when they were having their assembly and a little five year old girl read Rosie's Walk beautifully, from the pictures, and I like that it gives children confidence.
I'm waiting to see how Where, Oh Where, is Rosie's Chick will do, I'm a little nervous as Rosie is such a popular character with teachers.
Q: How did you decide to approach the sequel to Rosie's Walk in terms of the story?
A: I've written Where, Oh Where, is Rosie's Chick? in mind of the child who knows Rosie's Walk. I wanted this Rosie to look like the original Rosie; she's not an exact copy, some things about her are different, but I wanted her to be recognisable. I also thought it would also be nice if children could recognise other things from the first story, like the fox and the beehive in this book.
In Rosie's Walk, Rosie accidentally thwarts the fox throughout and I thought I would continue that idea in Where, Oh Where, is Rosie's Chick?, where she accidentally helps her chick through what she does. For example, when Rosie looks in the basket of logs and knocks them over, she inadvertently helps the chick by giving him a something to step onto in the water. When she kicks the apples around, she flicks an apple into a fish's mouth which prevents it from eating her chick. Whatever she does, as a consequence she helps her chick.
I also liked the circular sense you get with Rosie's Walk, that 'look behind you' element, and making the reader wonder what will happen next when they spot the the fox on the page.
I brought Fox back into the story because I thought it would be nice to have her lurking in the background, just a little glimpse so the child can anticipate what might happen next and appreciate the ending. I think that children will follow the main story but they are also really quick at picking things up and they will realise there is another story in Rosie's Chick. I try to get a sub plot in all my stories, if I can.
Q: You've retained the same illustrative style in Where, Oh Where, is Rosie's Chick? as you used in Rosie's Walk, but how did you create it initially?
A: I was still at art school when I started on Rosie's Walk and I used to love patterns and used to use patterns in my drawings, but I arrived at the style I use in Rosie's Walk for purely practical reasons.
When I got the contract to create Rosie's Walk, it was early on in the days of printing colour and the publisher told me I had to pre-separate the drawings. I didn't know what this meant, but fortunately I had a friend who is an illustrator who helped me.
The original book was very limited in terms of the colours we could use, we could only use three colours; red, yellow, green and then you get black if the colours are combined. I used a black outline that I had to fit the colour into.
I had to draw the line first around the image. If I wanted red on the page, I would work on an acetate with varying degrees of black - a solid black meant a solid red colour, a lighter grey would be a little red; for each colour I had to trace the image in greys and then fit them together. At the time, about half of the children's books made in the US would have been three-colour separated like this.
This time around, I chose to use very flat colours to repeat the feel of the first book. I used magic markers, felt tips, to get the colour, and then I would draw over the black ink outlines.
I like pattern and they look effective when you're using flat colours. I played with introducing a blue colour to Where, Oh Where, is Rosie's Chick but it just didn't look right; I decided to keep to the same colours as I had used in Rosie's Walk.
Q: Were there any parts of the story that you found harder to illustrate?
A: There was one page that I found rather tricky, which is when Rosie is looking under the hen house and the cat is there. I had to work out how the hen house door would drop onto the cat. My son happened to be around that day, he went to art college and had another artist friend with him and they both attempted to demonstrate how the flap would fall. It was funny, but also very useful!
Q: Where do you do your work?
A: I work from a studio in a house that was originally built by a Victorian artist as his studio so there is a big window at the top of the house and lots of light, although it can get a wee bit cold in the winter and rather hot in the summer.
There's a big drawing board in the studio and painting stuff everywhere and right now it's a mess. My grandchildren have been here and had a drawing session so there's lots and lots of paper everywhere but I think it's so important for children to be able to come to the world through pictures.
I'm always sort of working, sitting at the drawing board, looking at a piece of paper and waiting for ideas... When I'm not in my studio I love gardening, cooking and I read a lot.
Q: What do you feel has been the highlight of your career so far?
A: I think Titch, a picture book character that became a television series, is one of the highlights of my career and I'm very fond of Titch because he's based on my son when he was little and later Titches were based on my other son. Laurence, my late husband, was an illustrator and he directed TV commercials. We made this little, few seconds long, animation to show people and a guy saw it at Yorkshire Television and he commissioned us to do a series. We eventually did three series of Titch and I even had a role on the show!
