This week, we were honoured to speak to an undisputable Queen of Children's Literature - Julie Sykes! Julie is the author of well over a hundred books, many of them co-written with the equally excellent Linda Chapman. Her bestselling series include the Netflix-adapted The Unicorn Academy, but throughout Julie's almost thirty year career she has written for the youngest children right up to teens. Come with us for a brilliant insight into Julie's life, career, work - and just how she keeps her creative flame lit, even after all these years.

Find Julie online at her website: www.juliesykes.co.uk

Find out more about International Literature Festival Dublin at www.ilfdublin.com

Tickets for the LIVE Storyshaped event are available here: LIVE STORYSHAPED PODCAST EVENT

Tickets for Susan's solo event are available here: DISCOVER THE MAGICAL WORLD BETWEEN THE RAIN

Tickets for Sinéad's solo event are available here: THE SUN, THE MOON, AND TWO STARS

Books mentioned in this week's episode include some of Julie's own:

The Unicorn Academy series (co-written with Linda Chapman; illustrated by Lucy Truman)

The Mermaid Academy series (co-written with Linda Chapman; illustrated by Lucy Truman)

The Woodland Magic series (illustrated by Katy Riddell)

The Perfect Puppies series

The Princess Ponies series

And the stories that shaped her include:

The work of Enid Blyton

Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome

The Punchbowl series, by Monica Edwards

The Romney Marsh series, by Monica Edwards

Carbonel: The King of the Cats, by Barbara Sleigh

Diary of an Accidental Witch, by Honor and Perdita Cargill

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner

The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien

Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian

The Great Elephant Chase, by Gillian Cross

The work of Dominique Valente

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door, by Pari Thompson

The Hedgewitch series, by Skye McKenna

The Wycherleys, by Annaliese Avery

The work of Harriet Muncaster

esp. Diary of Whisker Wildflower, by Harriet Muncaster

The work of Hilary McKay

esp. Rosa by Starlight, Saffy's Angel, and Indigo Star (all by Hilary McKay)

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

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We had a totally magical walk through picturebook author Mariesa Dulak's Storyshaped life on the podcast today, which took us all the way from Barbados to Harrogate, and plenty of other places besides! From nursery rhymes to Stephen King, and William Blake to Barbara Throws a Wobbler, join us as we follow Mariesa through the fantastic collection of tales (both written and spoken) that have shaped her work and made her the person she is today. Let's go!

Find Mariesa online at her website: www.mariesadulak.com

Books mentioned in this week's episode include Mariesa's own:

There's a Tiger on the Train (ill. Rebecca Cobb)

The Silver Shadow (ill. Alea Marley)

And the stories which shaped her include:

Nursery rhymes and songs told and sung to her by her parents

The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm

One Thousand and One Nights/Arabian Nights, folktales from the Islamic Golden Age

The Flower Fairies, by Cicely Mary Barker

The work of Alison Uttley

Winnie the Pooh: Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace, by AA Milne and EH Shepard

The work of Dr Seuss

The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis

The Worst Witch, by Jill Murphy

The work of Enid Blyton

Fungus the Bogeyman, by Raymond Briggs

The Tinderbox (fairytale)

The work of Roald Dahl

The work of Stephen King

Blubber, by Judy Blume

Forever, by Judy Blume

The work of John Agard

The work of Benjamin Zephaniah

The work of Malorie Blackman

Little Soldier, by Bernard Ashley

Flower Block, by Lanisha Butterfield (illustrated by Hoang Giang)

Out of the Blue, by Robert Tregoning (illustrated by Stef Murphy)

Songs of Innocence and Experience, by William Blake

Tyger, by SF Said

Skellig, by David Almond

Not Now, Bernard, by David McKee

Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

Barbara Throws a Wobbler, by Nadia Shireen

The work of Julia Donaldson

The work of Janet and Allan Ahlberg

The Cafe at the End of the Woods, by Mikey Please

The Full Stop that Got Away, by Laura Baker (illustrated by Nathan Reed)

Butter, by Asako Yuzuki

The Island of Brilliant podcast, hosted by Nadia Shireen and Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well - whew! Get ready for this week's episode, Storyshapers, because it's a whirlwind of mythology, folklore, history, archaeology and magic, all thanks to the enthralling Ellen Ryan. Ellen is a journalist and author, who likes to spend time visiting archaeological sites, researching the richness of Ireland's folklore, mythology, and history, and creating fantastic, inclusive, immersive, and lovingly constructed tales and retellings of some stories we might *think* we know... Come on a wander through the landscape of old Ireland with Ellen, and find out how she's Storyshaped.

Find Ellen online at her agent's website: https://belllomaxmoreton.co.uk/childrens-fiction/ellen-ryan

Books mentioned in this week's episode include Ellen's own:

Girls Who Slay Monsters (ill. Shona Shirley MacDonald)

Gods Don't Cry (ill. Conor Merriman)

And the stories that have shaped her include:

Under the Hawthorn Tree, by Marita Conlon-McKenna

The work of Siobhan Parkinson

Flight of the Doves, by Walter Macken

The Milly McCarthy series, by Leona Forde

The Hounds of the Morrigan, by Pat O'Shea

The work of Patricia Lynch

The Táin, ed. and modernised by Thomas Kinsella, illustrations by Louis le Brocquy

The Corpus of Electronic Texts (The UCC CELT Project)

The Book of the Elders, eds. Ann Dooley and Harry Rowe

The work of John Carey, medievalist and language scholar

esp. Magic, Metallurgy, and Imagination in Medieval Ireland, by John Carey

The work of Daniel Curley, archaeologist and guide at Rathcroghan Royal Site and Visitor Centre)

Ireland's Immortals, by Mark Williams

The work of Miranda Green

The Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, ed. Miranda Green

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we had the JOY of chatting to the very funny, very talented, very lovely Catherine Wilkins (or you might know her as Catie, if you're a fan of her stand-up comedy). She brought us on a wondrous meander through her Storyshaped life, from the country of Disney to the tales of Mossycoat - and everything in between! Come with us as we wander through the stories that have shaped her life and work, and get ready for a dose of major 80s cartoon nostalgia. 'For the honour of Greyskull... I am She-Ra!'

Find Catherine online at her website: www.catherinewilkins.co.uk

Books mentioned in this week's episode include Catherine's own:

My Best Friend and Other Enemies

My Brilliant Life and Other Disasters

My School Musical and Other Punishments

My Great Success and Other Failures

When Good Geeks Go Bad

The Weird Friends Fan Club

You're Not the Boss of Me!

Café Chaos

And the stories which have shaped her include:

She-Ra (80s cartoon and the modern remake)

The movies of Disney

The Mysterious Cities of Gold (cartoon)

Ulysses 31 (cartoon)

The Twits, by Roald Dahl

Fantastic Mr Fox, by Roald Dahl

The Magic Finger, by Roald Dahl

The Demon Headmaster, by Gillian Cross

The Worst Witch (series), by Jill Murphy

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

The Harry Potter books, by JK Rowling

Catwitch, by Lisa Tuttle and Una Woodruff

Norse Mythology, particularly a book owned by Catherine's dad

Collected Fairy Tales, particularly an edition owned by Catherine's dad, which included the tale Mossycoat

And... The Rabbit That Jumped Too High, by Catherine Wilkins, aged 6! *heart-eye emojis*

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've only gone and snagged the fantastic, prolific, and very wonderful Helen Peters for the podcast - and it's her turn in the hotseat today! We were charmed to take a stroll through the Storyshaped life of an author described as 'one of our finest modern children's storytellers' by Waterstones (who, to be fair, know their stuff), and we learned all about how Helen's childhood was shaped as much by the farm she grew up on as it was by the stories she surrounded herself with. These stories not only shaped her, but they shaped her brilliant creative output, too. Come on - pull yer wellies on and let's get going.

Books mentioned on this week's episode include Helen's own:

Friends and Traitors

Anna at War

Evie's Ghost

The Jasmine Green series

The Secret Henhouse Theatre trilogy

Find Helen at: helenpetersbooks.com

And the stories that shaped her include:

Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne, illustrations by E.H. Shepard

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

Tarka the Otter, by Henry Williamson

The picturebooks of Molly Brett

Brambly Hedge, by Jill Barklem

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

What Katy Did, by Susan Coolidge

Heidi, by Johanna Spyri

Ballet Shoes, by Noel Streatfeild

Curtains Up, by Noel Streatfeild

The Growing Summer, by Noel Streafeild

The Famous Five series, by Enid Blyton

The Secret Seven series, by Enid Blyton

The St Clare's series, by Enid Blyton

Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm, by Enid Blyton

The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Casson Family series, by Hilary McKay

The Exiles, by Hilary McKay

Millions, by Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Framed, by Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Holes, by Louis Sachar

Liar & Spy, by Rebecca Stead

The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

Cue for Treason, by Geoffrey Trease

King of Shadows, by Susan Cooper

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we welcome Alastair Chisholm - yes, only the brilliant, prolific, award-winning, award-nominated picturebook and middle grade author - to the podcast, and we hope you'll join us for the journey! Alastair has written about starships lost in space, about characters who can see back through time, about huge mecha-animals powered by human will, and - best of all - about ninja frogs, and that's just to name some of the books in his incredible back catalogue. Come with us as he takes us through the stories that have shaped him, and which continue to shape his world and his work.

Books mentioned in this week's episode include some of Alastair's own:

The Dragon Storm series, illustrated by Eric Deschamps

The Consequence Girl

Orion Lost

Adam-2

I Am Wolf

I Am Raven

And the stories which have shaped him include:

The Silmarillion, by JRR Tolkien

The Grey King, by Susan Cooper

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner

Charmed Life, by Diana Wynne Jones

Homeward Bounders, by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

Archer's Goon, by Diana Wynne Jones

Asterix, by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (et al)

The Eagle comic, founded by Marcus Morris

2000 AD, created by Kelvin Gosnell, Pat Mills, John Wagner

The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis

The work of Nicholas Fisk

The work of Jan Mark

The work of Isaac Asimov

The work of Robert Heinlein

The Stainless Steel Rat, by Harry Harrison

The Best of Harry Harrison - short story anthology

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, by Stephen Donaldson

Zenith, by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway (Alastair's edition has illustrations by CF Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard)

The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham

The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham

The work of Sir Terry Pratchett

Legend, by David Gemmell

Master and Commander (series), by Patrick O'Brian

Sword of the Sun, by Sinéad O'Hart

The World Between the Rain, by Susan Cahill

Wren, by Lucy Hope

A Kind of Spark, by Elle McNicoll

Sticky Pines: The Bigwoof Conspiracy, by Dashe Roberts

Bird Boy, by Catherine Bruton

Dungeon Runners, by Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd Stanton

The work of Christopher Edge

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We were beside ourselves with glee this week as we sat for a chat with the brilliant Celine Kiernan, an artist who has been influencing - and Storyshaping - our lives since way before she began writing her brilliant children's books. Celine's career began in the animation industry, where she was part of the team who brought the world such incredible tales as The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go To Heaven, An American Tail, and more - and we got the pleasure of chatting to her about that time in her life, as well as her own work, and the stories which have shaped her incredible literary and artistic output. This one was super-special. Come and join us, won't you? Somewhere out there...

Books mentioned in this week's episode include Celine's own:

The Moorehawke Trilogy (The Poison Throne, The Crowded Shadows, The Rebel Prince)

Into the Grey

The Wild Magic Trilogy (Begone the Raggedy Witches, The Little Grey Girl, The Promise Witch)

Resonance

And the stories that shaped her include:

Twinkle, a periodical comic and annual

Little Grey Men, by BB

Down the Bright Stream, by BB

The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

The Borrowers, by Mary Norton

Judy magazine

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, by Alan Garner

The Moon of Gomrath, by Alan Garner

The Mouse and his Child, by Russell Hoban

Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban

Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley

Something Wicked this Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury

The Doll House (later, Tottie) by Rumer Godden

Ned Kelly and the City of the Bees, by Thomas Kenneally

The work of Raymond Chandler

The work of John Steinbeck

The work of Charles Dickens

The work of Ernest Hemingway

The short stories of Moira McHugh

Brides of Rollrock Island, by Margo Lanagan

Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan

Savage Her Reply, by Deirdre Sullivan

Tangleweed and Brine, by Deirdre Sullivan

Piranesi, by Susannah Clarke

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susannah Clarke

The Small Hand: A Ghost Story, by Susan Hill

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is one we've been hoping for since the beginning of the podcast! Today, we have the chance to sit down with the inexpressibly brilliant AF (Ashley) Harrold, prolific poet and author, Big Red Button pusher (if you haven't seen his excellent videos about his walks along the Thames, meeting herons and suchlike, you're in for a treat), hilarious performer and public speaker, and overall general Good Egg. We had so much fun chatting stories, books, and creativity with one of the best in the business. Won't you join us? Come along, then!

Books mentioned in this week's episode include AF's own:

The Imaginary

Imagining the Imaginary

The Afterwards

The Song From Somewhere Else

The Worlds We Leave Behind

... and countless books of poetry!

And the stories which shaped him include:

Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak

Fox Eyes, by Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams

Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd (link to the Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen essay)

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

Dunmousie Monsters, by Robin and Jocelyn Wild

Tin Tin, by Herge

The World of Myth and Legend, by Brenda Ralph Lewis, illustrated by Rob McCaig

The Adventures of Humbert, Simp and Harquin, by John Burningham

Phenomena: A Book of Wonders, by John Mitchell and Robert J Rickard

Gentleman Jim, by Raymond Briggs

Fungus the Bogeyman, by Raymond Briggs

Father Christmas, by Raymond Briggs

When the Wind Blows, by Raymond Briggs

Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? by Barbara Firth and Martin Waddell

The work of Bernard O'Donoghue, including his translations of The Wanderer and The Seafarer

Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban

The Mouse and His Child, by Russell Hoban and David Small

A Bargain for Frances, by Russell Hoban and Lillian Hoban

Monsters, by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake

M.O.L.E. by Russell Hoban and Jan Pienkowski

The Twenty-Elephant Restaurant, by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake

Tom Tit Moves House, by Molly Brett

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne

Awful End, by Philip Ardagh and David Roberts

I Like This Poem, by Kaye Webb and Antony Maitland

This Craft of Verse, by Jorge Luis Borges

About the House, by WH Auden

The Tale of Beren and Luthien - translated by AF Harrold!

The Silmarillion, by JRR Tolkien

The Collected Poems of Stevie Smith

Our podcast bookshop in Ireland is Halfway Up the Stairs: www.halfwayupthestairs.ie. You might also like to check out www.kennys.ie for free shipping within the Republic of Ireland!

In the UK, check out our storefront on: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/Storyshaped. Disclaimer: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.