Emma Quay is an illustrator and writer of many award-winning picture books; her memorable characters for Rudie Nudie, Baby Bedtime, Shrieking Violet, Bear and Chook, Daddy’s Cheeky Monkey, Good Night, Me, Scarlett, Starlet and My Sunbeam Baby are favourites on children’s bookshelves all over Australia. Emma grew up in the English countryside and has wanted to illustrate children’s books for as long as she can remember. She works from a studio in her home and sometimes feels like she barely leaves it, but her illustrative work is held in collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Today, Emma is on the blog to share why she returned to the Rudie Nudie family after over a decade, in her latest picture book, Rudie Nudie Christmas. Read on …
Emma Quay
I had no idea I would write another Rudie Nudie book!
When people ask what I love most about making picture books for children, I’ve never had to think twice: it is imagining families sharing my books at bedtime and knowing they are a small part of people’s lives. However, when I hopped onto Instagram a few years ago, I found I didn’t need to imagine any more – I began to see beautiful scenes of parents and children cuddled up with my books . . . and none more so than Rudie Nudie. I spend months alone in my studio, working on the illustrations for my books, so I’m sure you’ll understand how happy it makes me feel to see them being shared and enjoyed. Nothing beats it!
I wrote Rudie Nudie over ten years ago, thinking about when my daughters were young, their friends came for sleepovers and spontaneous post-bath dashes would fill the house with laughter. The book is full of small moments from day-to-day family life – ordinary moments, which I treasured. And because it was our family’s experience, naturally it is a lot of other families’ experience too. Through all those messages, photos and videos, I’ve discovered people see their own children and family routines reflected in the book. I know little Archer kisses the sleeping children on the last page of the book ‘night, night’ every bedtime, and Rudie Nudie features in young Elsie’s baby book because it was such a big part of her childhood. I’ve heard four-year-old Sadiq recite the book by heart after hearing it read to him since he was born, phrases like ‘dancing footprints on the bathmat’ have become a part of the Morrison family’s everyday lingo, and the two Rudie Nudie characters reminded Brett in Western Australia so much of his daughter and son at that age, he had them tattooed onto his arm to remind him of that special time in their lives.
Making all these connections, and many more, has brought me such joy, and one day whilst out walking, I was reflecting on how grateful I was for people’s generosity in sharing their family moments with me, and wondering how I could give back in some small way. Looking back, I can see my thought process so clearly – like a mind map in my head, drawing lines from the word ‘give’ to ‘gift’ . . . to ‘present’ . . . to ‘Christmas present’ . . . all the way to ‘Rudie Nudie Christmas’! And immediately an image of the two children running round and round the Christmas tree and sneaking the odd peek at the names on the gift tags flashed into my mind.
As a result, this is the first picture book I’ve made where I’ve known exactly who it’s for – which made for a completely different experience creating it. I knew children would recognise the familiar language, rhythm and rhyme from the first book, explored in a different way. I could picture their faces soaking up the page with the boy’s soap-bubble beard and the girl’s Christmas carolling in the steamed-up shower, and imagine them following the fresh Rudie Nudie scamperings all around the house (which is looking very festive, decked out in twinkling lights and the kids’ Christmas craft) . . . till it’s on with the Rudie red-nosed-reindeer jarmies and time to string stockings by the screen door!
There is lots of nudie dashing and dancing in the illustrations, as you’d expect, but I made sure all is calm by the end of the book. It wouldn’t do to hype up those little readers too much – especially on Christmas Eve! There is a bedtime, with kisses under the mistletoe fairy lights, picture books to be read and eyes to close.
The dedication in Rudie Nudie Christmas reads, ‘To all who have snuggled up with my books’, because I know I wouldn’t have written the new story if it weren’t for them. It makes me smile to imagine children unwrapping the book this December, and it being a part of their wind-down to bedtime on the night before Christmas.
—Rudie Nudie Christmas by Emma Quay (ABC Books) is out now.
Rudie Nudie Christmas
Yoo-hoo, Rudie Nudie.
Rudie Nudie, where are you?
It is very nearly Christmas Day
for Rudie one and two.
It's Christmas Eve and two little rudie nudies are on the run again! From bestselling author-illustrator Emma Quay comes the perfect book to share this holiday season...
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