By Louise Sapphira
Experience the joy that learning, storytelling, and picture books bring to a young generation.
Giving to the next generation grows a sense of warmth in one’s heart. Mark Carthew does this with sincerity in today’s demanding digital world. Sharing the enjoyment of learning with children, teenagers, and adults is part of his repertoire. His audience gains so much from his gift of writing poetry and anthologies. Rhyme intertwined with music encourages children to learn about linguistics and language. However, when I met with Mark, we discussed more than the educational benefits. Mark captivates an enthusiastic audience through the warmth and humour in his story making. Merging this with the collaboration on illustrations brings his storytelling to an even higher dimension.
Mark wrote poetry from early on in his writing journey. With a background in primary school teaching, he says, ‘Teachers are always surrounded by books and by the joy of words and learning.’ This has flowed into his craft. Mark adds, ‘But poetry came from my family background.’ His grandfather had historical poetry collections, which he still holds close to his heart. This included, ‘Shelley, Wordsworth, all those antique books and, in a subtle sense, that love of lyricism started there.’ His mother was a talented pianist, and this also became a part of his childhood. He describes music as being connected with linguistics, poetry, and a sense of rhyme.
However, there is another layer to Mark’s poetry. Mark says, ‘In recent times, I did a little series of books called the Marvin & Marigold series, illustrated by Simon Prescott, for New Frontier Publishing.’ With this publication, the motivation was not only about wordplay or storytelling through detailed illustrations. ‘[It] was about kindness and empathy, which is a little bit deeper…people take away a sense of looking after each other.’ In Marvin & Marigold: The Big Sneeze, ‘It’s very empowering for the female character because Marigold looks after Marvin.’ In Marvin & Marigold: A Christmas Surprise, Marigold reaches out to her next-door neighbour, Marvin, to decorate the Christmas Tree together while sharing stories about the decoration’s family and personal history. Mark says, ‘That familiar ritual gives so much to the audience,’ and involving the audience is very powerful.
There is value in play, interacting, and learning at any age. It is an interactive experience that entices all the senses. Mark says, ‘That immersion in language as a holistic concept is just so important.’ The love children have for play is also woven into his PhD, Can You Keep a Secret? Timeless rhymes to share and treasure. He adds, ‘a parent or anyone really that interacts with little children,’ can see this love of play.
Mark has collaborated with publishers, writers, and illustrators who bring a remarkable amount to the value of storytelling. Mark has worked with Mike Spoor for over twenty years. This includes the humorous books published by Leaping Lizards Press. He has also worked with Mini Goss and says, ‘Mini’s wonderful at creatures, and in Five Little Owls, I was searching for an illustrator who would be great at all the animals and the birds.’ With Matt Stanton, graphic designer and illustrator for The Moose is Loose!, ‘We went to a local hotel in Sydney near Harper Collins Publishers and had a few drinks, and I shared some of my ideas and thoughts…however it’s really important not to get in the way of their creative process…just step back and let them bring their magic to the process.’ Friend and fellow children’s and young adult writer Hazel Edwards OAM likes the way music, movement, and song are often part of Mark’s work, breathing even more life into his storytelling. He connects this musical correlation with his career in teaching and says, ‘It brings the book to life in a different medium.’
It was the book Newts, Lutes and Bandicoots, a collaboration with UK illustrator Mike Spoor, that initially opened the door for Mark as a writer of picture storybooks used in education. He says, ‘It’s a very complex, visually engaging book about the end sounds of words.’ Mark showed this book to Denise Ryan at Pearson Education, who loved the rhyme and the playfulness of the words. He adds, ‘She then commissioned me to write the Blends Books series…and this is where I cut my teeth in publishing.’ Peter Gouldthorpe, with his illustrations, brought life to the series, and after a workshopping weekend retreat together in Tasmania, followed through with Mark’s trademark enjoyment of hiding things in the pages. Mark says, ‘I like to see if my illustrators can hide extra things because it means you can dive back into a picture book, multiple times…[and] see something different every time.’ These selections of books helped his involvement in education thrive. Mark adds, ‘It just all started to snowball because I got involved in editing and commissioning the [play script] VoiceWorks series…and everything just got more and more exciting as we went through.’
When considering digital technologies and the sustainability of the printed book, Mark says, ‘Interestingly enough, the children’s book part of the market has held itself up remarkably well.’ Mark speaks about a bedtime story that provides something tactile and can be touched, allowing the opportunity to interact differently with the picture book as opposed to a screen. Mark adds, ‘The design of books has gotten better.’ With new software available for illustrators, the design is ‘crispier, it’s engaging.’ There are different techniques now, in addition to oil pastels, watercolour, pencils, or chalk, and artists continue to experiment with picture books, he explains.
Perhaps this is why Mark started making stories through various mediums. He states that digital media cannot replace face-to-face contact. During a recent series of Zoom performances in the UK, he felt that being in the room with his guitar would have been a different experience. He says, ‘It’s like a comedian…they sense when a joke’s flying, [or] when they’re going to die on stage, and they can adapt as they go.’ Mark speaks about how that interaction between people has also motivated him to create the many plays he has performed over the years.
Mark also works with adult emerging artists and teenagers, though primary school-age children are his main audience. When considering workshops with secondary school children, Mark was recently in the Pilbara and the Kimberley working in schools that involved remote, rural, and Indigenous communities. Working with diverse backgrounds also provided a unique experience. Mark says, ‘Whether you’re six, sixteen, or sixty, the joy of writing is the joy of writing.’ He adds, ‘The challenge for anyone running workshops is to make sure that people are engaged and are motivated to do their own thing.’ He adds, ‘There are structures that you can learn as an editor yourself…but teaching someone to be a fantastic writer, in whatever genre it is, some of that comes from the heart, from the soul.’ It is about discovering the motivation to ‘enjoy the process.’
We discussed Mark’s two favourite books, Yertle the Turtle and The Lord of the Rings. Yertle the Turtle, by Dr. Seuss, is about the enjoyment of rhyme with a touch of humour. But primarily, it is about having fun. This has ‘always been a special part of my teaching life, and that has percolated through my books as well.’ In a different direction, Mark talks about what drew him to The Lord of the Rings. He speaks about how ‘in the end, the good guys won…you want the good people to win.’ Mark adds, ‘Even though there’s a lot of sadness and violence in The Lord of the Rings…there’s still hope…that sense of magic and right and wrong.’ Mark considers how the writer’s journey can connect with the hero’s journey, ‘the old mythical tropes of your battle.’
After winning Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year Award in 2021 for his onomatopoeic picture book, The Thing That Goes Ping! (illustrated by Shane McG); Mark has four + projects he is currently working on. He says, ‘It seems to be getting harder. There’s a lot more celebrity publishing going on…it’s a tough gig.’ However, ‘I’m keen to try and attract the attention of a couple of publishers at the moment and also explore self-publishing. So, watch this space.’ This gives his audience much to look forward to. Whether it is a live performance, music, or picture books, Mark will ensure both he and his audience don’t miss a beat when it comes to the love of learning, reading, listening, collaboration, and storytelling.
Dr Mark Carthew is an award-winning Australian children’s author, teacher, poet and musician well known for his books and series celebrating language, humour and wordplay. Mark has extensive experience in trade and education publishing with numerous books, series, anthologies, poems and songs published with Australian and international publishers: see www.markcarthew.com.au
Mark has a PhD in Writing from Swinburne University and he was the inaugural Irwin Ermidis Visiting Research Fellow at UniSA, focused on oral language. Shortlisted an impressive eight times, Mark’s picture books The Gobbling Tree (2009) and The Thing That Goes Ping! (2021) were both winners of Speech Pathology Australia’s Book of the Year Award.
