Youth Music - BongoClub.org.uk

Miriam Moss wrote Chiff Chaff and Chick Pea: In Search of Sounds. She is an award-winning author of 30 picture books, poetry and short stories that have been translated into over 20 languages. Her picture books include Bare Bear (Hodder), Wibble Wobble! (Orchard), Bedtime, Billy Bear! (Macmillan), Matty Takes Off! (Andersen) and This is the Reef (Frances Lincoln).  Miriam grew up in Africa, China and The Middle East before living in England. After university she taught English and started writing when the first of her three children was born. She has extensive experience of working creatively with children, and enjoys taking part in author events in schools, libraries and at festivals. She now lives in Sussex and writes in a converted potting shed in the garden.  

What did Youth Music ask you to do for Music Start?
They asked me to come up with a story for 2 - 5 year olds that was full of rhyme and rhythm and repetition. They liked a book that I'd done before called Bare Bear, which was similar to that and had been read on Cbeebies. They wanted the book to offer potential and inspiration for lots of music and movement, counting, loud and soft noises, fast and slow etc. I had to come up with characters from scratch and locations and so on. They also asked me to get the characters to visit eight countries, represented by the large percentage of ethnic groups in the UK.

What inspired you to create the two main characters, Chiff Chaff and Chick Pea?
The brief was that they wanted to travel, so it was fairly logical that a good way of getting around the world would be either something being blown, or birds or balloons or travelling by plane. It seemed the most child-friendly idea was to have a couple of birds and to have a parent bird and a baby bird.

What did you enjoy most about working on the project?
I came up with the name Chickpea and it was really nice seeing Chickpea take form, then discussing that with Sian [one of the illustrators of the book], and honing the child-friendly nature of Chickpea which involved making him more fluffy and his neck shorter and so on! There was lots of discussion like that and the best bit for me when I'm doing picture books, is seeing another imagination come in and do the visuals. That's the bit I love. A lot of people say 'isn't it different from the way that you feel, and the way you've envisaged them?' and of course it is, but that doesn't bother me at all because it's such a creative act. I just think how powerful words are, because everything starts there. I've worked with a lot of different illustrators with the thirty or so picture books I've written, and they all have different ways of working, which is fascinating.

In this particular instance, having the added dimension of the music coming through as well was wonderful. That was just a lovely, new dimension for me. The most extraordinary thing was creating a story that everything else had to come from. It had to have enough potential for everybody else to work with it.

If you were Chickpea where would you fly to next?!
I'm afraid that's unanswerable! I think another story for Chickpea would be wonderful and there's lots more scope there. I think Chickpea's doing very well going to all those places!

For more information on Miriam Moss and her books, visit http://www.miriammoss.com