Riddell doodles boost Book Trust

Chris Riddell and Macmillan Children’s Books are raising money for Book Trust with a new Doodle-a-Day diary, featuring 366 pages of ideas to encourage doodling (one for each day of the year and another for leap years). Riddell’s Doodle-a-Day, due for publication on 22nd October (£9.99), is an “interactive diary” of things to draw, colour or doodle. Twenty pence from the sale of each book will be donated to the charity.

Riddell said encouraging people to draw would be one of the primary aims of his two-year stint as Children’s Laureate, a role he took on in June. He said. “It was always part of my plan as Children’s Laureate to encourage everyone to draw for pleasure every day, and I hope that Doodle-a-Day will be a great way to get people started on creating new and fantastic pictures.”

Speaking to The Bookseller shortly after his appointment as Children’s Laureate, Riddell said that he would keep a “laureate log” in the form of a sketchbook filled with drawings of the people he encounters during his two- year tenure.

“When kids ask if I have tips on becoming an illustrator or an artist I always say get a sketchbook or a notebook,” he said. “It’s a way of starting to think visually. When my kids were little we used to sit down and they would draw in my sketchbook and I would draw the background, or do some shading. I want to talk about families drawing, and kids forcing their parents to draw with them.”

Book Trust chief exectuive officer Diana Gerald said: “We are very excited about Chris’ Doodle-a-Day and so grateful for his and Pan Macmillan’s support of Book Trust. We are passionate about getting families reading together, and Chris has always been such a wonderful advocate for drawing and shared stories being at the centre of family life, which is one of the reasons why he is such a brilliant Children’s Laureate.”