Andrew Whitson, AKA 'Mr Ando', illustrator of World Book Day title Ag Buzzáil sa Ghairdín, welcomes readers to this year's WBD celebrations.
My name is Andrew Whitson, and I'm an artist and creative director of an Irish Language children's publishing house called An tSnáthaid Mhór. I am based in An Cultúrlann, an old Presbyterian church now purposed as an Irish Language centre in Belfast.
I was delighted to have Ag Buzzáil sa Ghairdín chosen for World Book Day this year in Ireland! It's wonderful to have a book 'As Gaeilge' included in the selection of curated titles alongside other UK and Ireland-published books.
Promoting these titles on such a high-profile platform helps to publicise our ethos which is to deliver great Irish Language books to a young audience interested in practising and/or learning the language.
World Book Day is an essential date in my calendar for my practice as an artist and for my publishing house, which exists to promote the use of the Irish language throughout the Island of Ireland through reading, writing, talking and listening. Indeed this annual celebration is such a popular date in the literary calendar to promote books and reading for children of all ages across the world.
World Book Day is a great opportunity for schools, parents, publishers, authors, illustrators and of course readers to come together and promote reading, especially reading for joy, to all our children and young people.
I’m so excited that through World Book Day, lots more young readers will have access to Ag Buzzáil sa Ghairdín with their €1.50 World Book Day token. It was such a great experience working with former Laureate na nÓg Áine Ní Ghlinn on this book. She is so enthusiastic and understands the nature of working together to create the highest quality Irish Language books.
In the case of Ag Buzzáil sa Ghairdín, the project began with a basic rhyme, which Áine shared with me. From there, we teased out the kernel of the idea and expanded it out into a full rhyme which eventually became a book delivered in a visual style that complimented the text.
Since its inception in 2007, An tSnáthaid Mhór has grown from strength to strength. Along with my wife, Caitríona, we have navigated many hurdles to deliver high-quality books to our target audience and, in so doing, have learned so much about the children's publishing industry and our place in it. When we began, we were interested in Irish myths and legends and would spend inordinate amounts of time honing our craft to the point where only one book would be published in a given year!
This is in contrast to our current approach, where we favour creating character-based books that could form a series and, therefore, have the potential to cross over onto a wide range of media and resonate with even more people. We experienced this with our Rita series of books written by Máire Zepf, which was made into a six-episode series of animated shorts for Cúla 4.
If you’d like to discover more Irish language books on World Book Day or during Seachtain Na Gaeilge, go here, and find out more about Lá Domhanda na Leabhar Éire | World Book Day Ireland here.
