Joe Berger
About Author
Joe Berger is a children's author, illustrator, and cartoonist.
In 2011 he was a winner of Booktrust's Best New Illustrators Award. He also makes prize-winning animated short films and title sequences and is co-creator of the Berger and Wyse food cartoon.
Interview
LYTTLE LIES: THE STINKY TRUTH
SIMON AND SCHUSTER CHILDREN'S BOOKS
APRIL 2018
Sam Lyttle is a small boy who tells big lies and his hilarious misdemeanours are followed through text, cartoon strips and comic illustrations in the Lyttle Lies books.
In the second book, LYTTLE LIES: THE STINKY TRUTH, Sam Lyttle has a big challenge - he must tell the truth for the whole of the holidays if he's to see Cry Wolfe, the first movie starring his favourite crime-fighting hero. Sam's truth-telling turns out to be a big challenge for his family, too, and that is where many of the laughs come in this funny, well-paced story for young readers.
We asked author and illustrator Joe Berger to tell us more.
Q: Why did you decide to write as well as illustrate your own children's fiction?
A: I love comics and graphic novels, and for the past 17 years I've co-created a weekly comic strip in the Guardian. For a long time I've wanted to tell a longer story using words and pictures - I think it's my natural habitat.
Q: What gave you the idea for your character, Sam, who can't help stretching the truth?
A: Sam is completely based on me as a child - in fact in an earlier version of the story the boy was called Joe. But I didn't want it to feel like a memoir, so I changed his name to Sam. Most of his exploits have some connection to stuff I did or that happened to me, but it's great to be able to make things up as well, to create an exciting story.
Q: Why did you decide to make Sam tell the truth in this latest story?
A: The three week Truth Challenge is not something I did as a child (I probably couldn't have managed it!) but it was a useful device to propel the story. I loved the book How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell when I was little, in which a boy has a bet with his friend that he will eat a worm a day for a month - that was definitely part of my inspiration too.
Q: What is the biggest lie you told as a child?
The biggest lie I told hasn't yet featured in the Lyttle Lies books - it's too shameful really. I want the readers to like Sam, and I'm not sure the biggest lie I told says anything positive about the perpetrator. Oh dear - that's all I'm prepared to divulge at the moment.
Q: There is lots of humour in these stories, does that come naturally to you as a writer?
A: I love making people laugh, and the weekly cartoon I do aims to do just that in a single image. It's a different exercise weaving jokes into a narrative, but just as satisfying when you get it right. I write these books as a script first, and then do page layouts and all the drawing afterwards - sometimes jokes occur at the last minute, as I'm drawing up the action.
Q: You use different ways of telling the story, including illustrations and cartoon strips as well as sections of text. Why did you want to tell the story through text and images?
A: I think it's my natural voice. I was quite clear from the start that I wanted this to be distinct from illustrated fiction, where the text is interspersed with pictures. The difference with this is that the pictures are integral to telling the story - if you take them away you've only got half of what's going on.
I imagine these stories as films (I even have a soundtrack in my head for some bits) and the sections of text are basically Sam's voiceover. I like those bits because they break up the layouts - page after page of panels and speech bubbles can be quite daunting to some readers, and I wanted this to feel very approachable.
Q: Has your background as a picture book illustrator helped you when it comes to telling more of the story through the images - for example, Sam's oblivion to how his family responds to his truth-telling?
A: Yes I think so. It's an aspect of picture books that I really adore - the little narratives that follow alongside the words but are told just through the drawing. And using words and pictures together offers great opportunities for counterpoint - Sam can be saying one thing to the reader, but we can see he's doing something quite different, even if he's not aware.
Q: Family relationships are at the heart of these books, why did you decide to focus them on the home rather than, say, school?
A: Probably the simplest reason is that if you have scenes with lots of characters it can become quite difficult to frame the action - the drawings can get quite unwieldy - though I still have this problem when there are scenes with the family sitting at the table eating, which seems to occur quite a lot (I think family meals are an important part of me).
I think also it relates to Sam's lying. He's not a fantasist - though a bit of that stuff creeps in - most of his lying is as a result of doing something awful and then lying to cover his tracks. He's trying to avoid being in trouble, and somehow those situations seem to be mostly domestic.
Parsley Primary does feature quite prominently in The Pudding Problem, but The Stinky Truth happens during the school holidays.
Q: Sam's father's (unpopular) hobby is jazz guitar noodling, is this something you have ever done? What about pickling radishes?! (the grandfather's hobby).
A: Sam's dad is definitely based on my dad, who has an abiding love of jazz guitar noodling. My mum has probably similar levels of tolerance to Sam's mum Sally, though she can't banish him to the allotment because that's where she is!
I really love pickles, and once had the most delicious pickled radish in a Japanese restaurant. I went home and tried to create my own and it was disastrous - I wasn't following a recipe and the results were inedible. I've subsequently successfully pickled carrots - using a recipe this time - so I might try radishes again, or cucumbers.
Q: Sam and Charlie are fans of crime fighter Wolfe Stone, a television character. If you could meet your favourite tv or comic hero, who would it be?
A: When I was growing up, the highlights of my week were A-Team, The Fall Guy, The Dukes of Hazard and all those US TV series, which are definitely part of the inspiration for Wolfe Stone. Not sure I'd want to meet any of them now though. I also used to be allowed to stay up late and watch Kojak with my mum - he was very cool, and is probably the reason Sam and Charlie like lollipops. Yeah I'd like to meet Theo Kojak.
Q: Are you working on another Lyttle Lies novel? If so, what next for Sam? And what else are you working on?
I'm not working on another Lyttle Lies book at the moment, but I would love to create another graphic novel. Perhaps it will feature Sam, perhaps it'll be a different kind of story, for a different age group. Readers really love Pudding the cat, so I've been thinking about possibly doing some cartoon stories about Pudding's adventures before she met Sam.
Meanwhile I continue to do my weekly cartoon, and I'm working on illustrating several picture books as well.
Q: Where do you do your writing and illustration work? Do you do other kinds of work as well?
A: I have a studio, about 20 minutes walk from my home in Bristol. It's a brilliant place to work, and I do animation, illustration and cartoons as well as writing here.
Q: What is your favourite escape from writing?
A: Anybody who knows me will know the answer to this question. Board games. I like card games and board games. Quite complicated ones with unusual themes - one of my current favourites is about peat farming in 19th century East Frisia. There are so many new and exciting board games coming out - sometimes I read rule books in bed.
Q: What are your top tips for children who want to develop their illustration skills?
A: My top tip would be to copy drawings you like. It's a great way to learn different techniques.
My other bit of advice is always carry a small notebook and write down ideas - ideas for drawings, ideas for stories, ideas for jokes. People sometimes ask me where I get my ideas, and that's where I get them - from the notebooks I keep. The trick is to write down ideas even if you immediately think they're no good - next time you look at the them they might suddenly offer up something clever or intriguing.
Lyttle Lies: The Stinky Truth
Lyttle Lies: The Pudding Problem
