Marjoke Henrichs is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book Detective Catz and the Missing Nut. Her other books include No! Said Rabbit. She is based in the UK.
Q: What inspired you to create Detective Catz and the Missing Nut?
A: I wanted to write a story about my cat for a while. When he was younger (he is 13 now) he would be out most of the day and I wondered what he was up to. So I imagined him being a detective, solving clues, going his way in secret.
I started drawing him in different situations in a detective trench coat.
How the story ended up is completely different than how it began.
Q: In our previous Q&A, about No! Said Rabbit, you said you focused initially on the images for the book before turning to the text. Was that the case with this book too?
A: In this book the text and images developed more closely together. But the images always came first. In that way the text could be fluid and change anytime, shaping the story with the developing drawings.
Once the images and text are roughly in place, I concentrate on the text to get it right.
Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?
A: To be kind, helpful and compassionate, and not to give up when things are difficult. Also I hope they get inspired to play “detective” themselves! (Which I heard a lot of children do!)
Q: What are you working on now?
A: At present I am working on the third book of the Rabbit series.
I really love Rabbit, so it’s great to draw him again!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I did set the story in autumn as it made sense that Squirrel is collecting nuts and hiding them. Also I could use the rich and vibrant autumn colours - working with a stick and ink, gouache and colour pencil enabled me to create those.
I greatly enjoy doing sessions with children using this book. The highlight is when they have to find the missing items themselves, which I have hidden around the room. In that way we recap the story. Then I let them draw a detective as the child sees it, with all the detective items. Those drawings are always fabulous!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Marjoke Henrichs.
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