In an interview about her new book, The Starting School List, Kitty Black emphasises the joy of turning ideas into children's books and the power of using personal experience to create relatable stories.

What do you love about writing children's books?

I love that ideas become books! It’s still a wonderful surprise for me that my words go from being only in my own head, to being printed and bound and in the hands of kids as a real book. It’s amazing!

What inspired you to write The Starting School List?

It started as a suggestion that I could write about starting school, I’d actually never thought of it before the suggestion! But the idea very quickly caught hold and I knew that I wanted to write this book.

Did you have any personal experiences that contributed to this new book?

Lots! I think most people, whether their first day of school was last year or twenty years ago can relate to mushy sandwiches, sandpits, and the emotions that come with starting school. One of the lines in the book is talking about games often found in classrooms, ‘my favourite was Beetle.’ My favourite game was Beetle, so I had to put that in.

As a part of this story, Big Brother tells his Little Brother that there will sometimes be “grey days” at school. Do you have a favourite way to deal with grey days?

I think accepting that grey days will happen, and that there will be things you don’t like and can’t change goes a long way to emotional resilience. Plus, then you can focus on what you do like, and can change.

How much does your background in psychology and research influence your books?

Having worked in schools and spent a lot of time in them, my background in psychology influenced this book quite a lot! It was very easy to know what I wanted to say to kids starting school, that it is a grand adventure, that they are capable, and that it is enough just to be themselves.

How did writing this book compare to writing your previous children’s books?

It was a fairly similar process, except that I kept writing this manuscript in rhyme. I tried to avoid it, but it just wanted to be written that way. Luckily my publisher liked the rhyming version, and we went with it!

What do you hope your readers will take away from The Starting School List?

Hopefully they take a sense of warmth with them, a sense that there is someone (like an older sibling!) who wants the best for them at school, and that that feeling stays with them as they start their learning journey.

What was it like to work with an illustrator on this story? Were there particular images or experiences that you were excited to see?

It was very easy to work with Cate! I was excited to see all the illustrations, and I laughed so much at the ‘kids drawings’ in the book, the dinosaur in particular had me laughing for a long time. I also loved how the illustrations matched the students in schools today, it looked like any and every classroom I’d either worked in or my kids had been in!

Do you have any other projects in the works?

Absolutely, I’m working on a middle grade, fantasy-adventure novel. The only school in this book is a witch school!