'Writing for young children I am so aware that they experience giant firsts all the time...' Childrens' author Olivia Hope introduces her new picture book, The Lonely Only Dinosaur, illustrated by Anna Süßbauer.
It was only in 2020 that fossils on the Antrim coast were identified as belonging to dinosaurs – and they came from two very different dinosaurs!
One, a large carnivorous Megalosaurus was similar to a Tyrannosaurus Rex, while the other was a smaller herbivore called a Scelidosaurus covered in bony horns for armour. It made me wonder what if these were only two dinosaurs on an island and just like that, these polar opposite characters appeared – the loud, rambunctious Marsha the Megalosaurus and the shyer, but often clumsy Moss, a Scelidosaur. From this thought my story of The Lonely Only Dinosaur began.
Writing a picture book is often perceived as being one of the easier forms of writing because of the age of the readers but I take my picture books very seriously, so I always do my research! To create this story, I read about dinosaurs and their habitats. I discovered that waterlilies were the first blooming flowers 200 million years ago and that there were also dragonflies, beetles, moths, and butterflies at the same time as dinosaurs. I learned about the swamps, ferns and giant conifers that made up the landscapes, and little by little I could imagine where Marsha lived.
I visualised scenes around the waterlilies (Moss's favourite snack – even if he was terrible at catching them), the dragonflies (whose humming Marsha loved) and also, her beloved mud pool (beloved for reasons that are evident in Anna Süßbauer’s wonderfully funny illustrations!). I knew that Marsha would find it tricky to make friends because her personality was quite full on (stomping and roaring are her favourite thing), while Moss, the little dinosaur, was very timid and easily scared by loud sounds.
There’s no doubt that picture books have the most wonderful ability to show big life ideas in the form of enthralling illustrations with an accessible story. For me, the story usually begins with a longer draft of about three thousand words that holds a multitude of the elements I have researched, but then I start cutting back quite brutally, keen to get the most story out of the fewest words. I use the same technique when writing poetry and in a good picture book you will find that a writer takes a large idea or moment and then distils it down to something that is honest, precise, and true.
Writing for young children I am so aware that they experience giant firsts all the time – from starting school to riding a bicycle, so my stories often reflect these new encounters. Making a new friend can be a challenge, even for us as adults, how will we know what they will or won’t like about us? Do we have anything in common? With this story, I hope I can show how entirely different personalities can interact and clash but ultimately find a shared space to be friends (with the help of snacks!).
The Lonely Only Dinosaur is published by Gill Books
