Saturday, November 23, 2019

Q&A with Susie Hodge


Susie Hodge is the author of the new book The Children's Interactive Story of Art. Her many other books include The Short Story of Art. She is based in the UK.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Children's Interactive Story of Art?

A: It was originally going to be called The Ultimate Guide to Art and it was a collaboration with Carlton Publishing and the National Gallery in London.

Q: The book features paintings from London's National Gallery--how did you choose which ones to include?

A: Once I'd planned the chapters/pages for the book, we had meetings with a consultant at the National Gallery to help choose the most appropriate works of art.

Q: The book also comes with a free app--how does it supplement the book itself?

A: The app means that whoever reads the book can create their own virtual art gallery with their own selected works of art in it and also play games about art, such as doing a jigsaw to create a work of art, spotting the differences between two images, or picking out the odd one out from a group of paintings.

Q: What do you hope children take away from the book?

A: A love of art – or at least an interest in it that will encourage them to look at art more and find out more about it now and throughout their lives. I believe art is so enriching and I'd love everyone else to feel that way about it too!

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I'm writing several books at different stages at the moment; on women artists, the Dutch Golden Age, Paul Klee, Michelangelo, how to draw and some others that I can't discuss as they're only at idea stage now!

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: Those last books are all for adults, but I get lots of my ideas for children's books through meeting children of all ages when I run workshops in schools all over the world. Children, like art, are inspirational!

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

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