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| Eating fish fingers al fresco |
When I was a little girl, growing up in the 80's, I used to read an American children’s magazine, called 'Cricket'. In those days you could always find old copies from the 70's at Car Boot Sales and in 2nd
Hand shops for no more than 10p or 20p. This 'Cricket' hunt only made the
magazine more exciting to me...
It was described as The New Yorker for kids and
I loved it. It had the most imaginative,
varied and evocative illustrations, plus games to play, excellent stories,
recipes, you name it - it was between those precious Cricket covers.
Then I got a bit too cool, I became a
teenager and lost interest - my clever mother stored the magazines away and
then we all forgot about them.
Until a few months ago... and joyously, after over 20
years, these magazine still have the power to inspire - this time though I want
to have a go myself. Having a few hugely
beloved and wonderful Godchildren I worry at the over emphasis in their lives
of TV and computer games - I believe that given the opportunity to have a go at
some good old fashioned fun, most children would embrace it without a backwards
glance. The problem most parents are
finding is that there's just not enough out there - a lot of the magazines the
children want are based on TV characters - more emphasis on TV and less on
literature. So this is my experiment. In
the stolen and slightly moulded words of the film 'Field of Dreams' - if I make it, they will read. Terrible.
Using what I loved most about 'Cricket' to guide me, I
want to make a magazine that's full of poetry, short stories, things to make
and do (such as recipes, paper dolls, games and puzzles) and all illustrated
with varying styles. I’ll be looking back at the books and influences of
my own childhood (not just Cricket) and having a really good poke around what's
out in the marketplace today.
This project is INCREDIBLY exciting and gives me the
chance to be completely involved - it means I can explore styles and media and
I really can’t wait to get started. I love the amount of knowledge I will have
had to gain by doing this project and, if I am successful, I’d like to try and keep
it going after Uni.
After pages and pages of potential names, I am finally
planning to call the Magazine Piccolo - it means ‘small‘ in Italian and will
look great as a title - ‘Piccolo Magazine’. I have done quite a bit of
research into it and the name seems to be available - I’m not 100% content yet
though so will have another go at investigating it before I commit. See you in the next installment... J
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| My courageous brother rescuing me from, what is obviously, a giant crocodile's fearsome jaws... I owe him my life. (please note swimming costume worn over the clothes but tucked into the trousers at my insistence) |
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