An interview with Ken Wilson-Max
This issue of Books for Keeps boasts a cover featuring Aqua Boy, the latest picture book from award-winning author and illustrator Ken Wilson-Max. Aqua Boy stars a little boy whose close encounter with an octopus, stranded on the beach, helps him to overcome his fear of swimming underwater and to understand his responsibility to take care of the ocean. It follows Astro Girl and Eco Girl, forming a series of family-based, information-rich, empowering picture books for very young children. It also brings the number of picture books created by Ken Wilson-Max to over 70. In addition to his work as picture book creator, Ken is also now publisher at Kumusha Books, the special imprint set up by HarperCollins Children’s Books to publish inclusive books. Andrea Reece talked to Ken for Books for Keeps, about his experiences as author and publisher.
Born in Zimbabwe, Ken Wilson-Max came to the UK to study design, before moving into publishing. That was almost forty years ago, but it was another eight before he illustrated his own book. ‘I had a book idea that I had roughed up for somebody else, and the publisher said to me, “Why don’t you do it?” And up until that point, I had never considered myself an illustrator. I’ve always loved drawing, but it was only after I had almost been given that permission to do it that I started illustrating. That changed everything.’ That decision enabled him to carry on and importantly with a focus on the books and projects that he really wanted to do. As a publisher turned creator, he’s still very aware of the tussle between business and creativity and the balance that needs to be maintained.
The series that Aqua Boy is part of developed out of work that was definitely on the business side. ‘I was networking with small businesses in the City of London’ explains Ken, ‘And I realised I wasn’t a businessperson in the sense that the bankers and accountants there were.’ Struggling to get them to understand publishing and buy into his idea, he created a newspaper for children, had it printed and took it along. ‘It ended up in in them really getting behind it,’ he says. The newspaper was inspired by the Millennium Development Goals, which have now become the Sustainability Development Goals. ‘That led me to thinking what if we could create some really good picture books that were based on these themes and Aqua Boy is the third.’ He has a further 17 ideas to explore so watch out for more.
One of the things that is so effective about Aqua Boy, and the other books in the series, is the mix of message and family. While there’s an 
emphasis on the work that needs to be done to protect the planet, it’s clearly a team effort. ‘My family is very big and very mixed, which always makes family gatherings so interesting, and I feed that into my stories,’ says Ken, ‘But I do think it’s important to help children to appreciate that what they do, however small they may think it is, is worthwhile. I wanted children to see that every little bit counts, so it doesn’t matter if they don’t understand the big words, they can actually do something towards making a difference. Climate change, the environment, all the big issues, including politics, affect children too, so it made sense to find these accessible ways and entry points for them. That’s one of the drivers of the work that I’m trying to do nowadays.’
His work running Kumusha Books at HarperCollins is equally important in achieving change and his experience as publishing professional and creative will be invaluable to its success. ‘It’s a very exciting role,’ he says, ‘The challenge is to try and mix the inclusive ideal with the necessarily market focused approach of a big publisher. It might take us a little bit of time to work that out, I think.’ He adds, ‘I still come across people who regard inclusive books as ‘niche’, which is not what it means, versus other people who think that the bigger publishers are almost like the big bad wolf. And I’m sitting right there, not even in the middle, but jumping from one to the other side.’ He’s convinced that the outcome will benefit everyone in the field however and is also enjoying working to develop both with brand new illustrators and authors and some more established names. What’s the one thing he looks for from them? ‘Well, the first thing when I’m working with people that I want to work with or bring into HarperCollins or anywhere else, is to ask them about whether they can give me their own lived experience. And I don’t really mind what that lived experience is. So that might mean asking the dreaded question, “Where are you from?” but in a way that’s meant to encourage them to start thinking about the relevance of their childhood in the stories they want to tell. I like to have those conversations and encourage them to do that because I found that often people show me things that they think I’m going to like and actually my job is more than that, it’s to find the best ideas. What I like is not a determining factor.’ Board books and two very appealing picture books are out now.
With so much going on, it’s a wonder he finds time for his own work. It means being organised, and it sounds like Saturday mornings are always taken up with his own illustration. It’s still clearly enjoyable too, and he’s excited to be developing a new style. ‘I felt like I’ve been really struggling to do something different for quite a few years and it’s only in the last, maybe five or six years that I have managed to break out of that a little with a new approach, and that’s like being a 20-year-old again. It’s totally fresh and new, I’m using different media and now digital whenever I can.’ Something’s haven’t changed though, ‘My work always starts with observation, and I still work hard on the drawing and to make sure the scenarios are really well chosen.’ He relished having the chance to illustrate Valerie Bloom’s CLiPPA winning collection, Stars with Flaming Tails and hopes to do further poetry collections too.
Does his own success and the development of Kumusha Books give him an optimism for the future? He recounts a disheartening story about being told by a Nordic publisher – twice, at 30-year intervals – that they weren’t going to publish books with black and brown children in them ‘because they don’t sell in our country’ so, ‘I would just reiterate the idea that actually we can’t really stop. Thinking about how representation is the goal, when I started the job, I thought when we’ve conquered this, they won’t need me doing this anymore, but I don’t think that’s true now. I think that the minute you take your eye off representation, it goes back to being a topic and a topic can be either continued or abandoned. An ongoing vigilance, that’s what’s needed.’
Andrea Reece is managing editor of Books for Keeps.
Books mentioned, all Otter-Barry Books
Aqua Boy, 978-1915659224, £12.99 hbk
Eco Girl, 978-1913074319, £12.99 hbk
Astro Girl, 978-1910959213, £12.99 hbk
Stars with Flaming Tails, Valerie Bloom, illus Ken Wilson-Max, 978-1913074678, £8.99 pbk
