A. The idea for the story came from children's questions during school visits and book readings of the first Marvin books. Some of the most recurrent questions asked were "Are Marvin and Molly married?", "Are they going to get married?" and "Are they in love?" (usually followed by giggles and the teacher asking them what those things mean, followed by a variety of funny answers). Seeing that children found the subject so engaging and amusing I endeavored to include it in a story. Since most children of a young age will have some kind of fleeting, innocent crush at some point (be it on another child in the playground or even a cartoon character) it can also be useful for parents and teachers to have a story which they can refer to, which invites light-hearted discussion on the subject. With this in mind the idea was to write a story which would include the funny ideas from children, such as how Marvin and Molly would try to impress each other and the possible outcomes.
A. Since the launch of touch screen tablets and discovering how much children like playing with them, I wanted to have a go at making an interactive picture book. The aim was to stick to the picture book style as much as possible but enhance it with the possibilities offered by tablets such as sound effects, music, narration and interactions.
With the story already written but not yet illustrated for picture book format I was able to paint the pictures to also fit the tablet formats, and to facilitate the animation process I also separated the painted layers between the backgrounds and animations.
The addition of the dressing-up and face-painting activities were to further explore the format by adding a creative element and the possibility of saving pictures created by the user.
The app was produced and published by Pekingese Puppy, developed by Sherston Software and the music was contributed by friends.
Q. What is the background to the Marvin series?
A. I wrote the first book - 'Marvin wanted More!' in 1999 and within a few months it won a Macmillan prize for unpublished picture books. It was first published by Bloomsbury in 2003 and subsequently published in over 10 languages with the characters Marvin and Molly finding a significant following around the world. The second book - Marvin gets Mad!' was first released in 2008 and has already been translated into several different languages. It is still being picked up by new foreign publishers every year. The two books are proving to have stood the test of time and the combined sales are very close to the 500,000 mark.
In the long gaps between the release of each title I wrote and illustrated titles for a Harper Collins educational series, and also spent time traveling in several countries, working on various wooden boat and house restoration projects.
Q. How does the new story fit into the Marvin series?
A. As character based books the main link between the three stories are the characters of Marvin and Molly. In a nutshell, Marvin is a slightly reckless young sheep who doesn't think much before he acts, and Molly his more thoughtful, intelligent counterpart who looks out for him.
Another theme which runs through all three stories is that they are all about common emotions that young children experience. Marvin Wanted More is about wanting to keep up with others and then the pitfalls of striving to be on top. Marvin Gets Mad is about tantrums and and the feeling of uncontrolled anger over something small. And Marvin and Molly is about feelings of affection and the things children do to try to impress each other.
For emphasis of the subject matter as well as entertainment value the stories all go off on tangents, taking the characters out of their normal space, but a common theme remains in that children can learn a lesson through Marvin's or Molly's mistakes and then talk about them with their parents or teachers. My aim has always been to make funny stories which children can also learn from.
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