Dads in Prison

In the UK 170,000 children have a parent or sibling in prison. The impact of separation in such difficult circumstances is profound but often hard to discuss, particularly with younger children. When Liz Weir wrote a story, When Dad Was Away, featuring a child in this situation, Karin Littlewood was invited to illustrate her text. What were the challenges? Karin Littlewood explains.

I’ve always relied strongly on my instincts when first reading a text I’ve been commissioned to illustrate – so when I read Liz Weir’s story of a little girl whose father is in prison, I had a very direct and clear initial response. Above all, I wanted this book to look and feel very much like my other picture books, and like all the other children’s picture books you find in a school, library, bookshop and at home. It should not be confined to a separate area, only to be brought out to read in a specific and ‘Educational’ context. When Dad Was Away is, I felt, essentially the story of a child with all the feelings and emotions that everyone shares, regardless of the circumstances from which they arise.

So I began as I always do with lots of scribbles and marks that grew into sketches. Milly began to develop into a real character. I wanted her and her family to come across as people the reader feels familiar with, and to avoid any visual clichés. Liz’s text was very open and non-judgmental and I wanted to reflect that.

At first I concentrated on the spreads where Milly is dealing with her new situation at home and at school. But I was fully aware of the fact that her father is in prison. It’s about to become a big part of her life, and the story is definitely not hiding this.

Inside a prison

I’d never been inside a prison, but I had had a very profound experience when, in 2009, I visited Yarl’s Wood Immigration Centre with the author Beverly Naidoo to give a storytelling workshop for the children held there. The guards, the high-security levels, the endless corridors, the locking and unlocking of doors and the high fences all left a deep impression that I could, quite literally, draw upon.

I felt it was important for me to actually meet, talk, show my roughs and discuss them face to face with someone who had experience not only of visiting or working in a prison, but who was involved with children in this situation. I eventually came across a charity which sounded just right and, by coincidence, their offices turned out to be a short walk away from my studio in Clerkenwell.

The Ormiston Trust is a charity whose expertise includes dealing with children and families affected by imprisonment. They were incredibly helpful and I spent a long time with the staff there, showing them my sketches. They read the story with a great deal of interest, and their response was very valuable. I left, armed with pages of notes, new information and a few leaflets and booklets… the factual ones which are given to children in this situation.

Both the text and illustrations then took on a new slant. Liz took on board the Trust’s comments and reworked certain areas of the text, and my illustrations changed, responding to this new information. Some things disappeared, such as the part of the story where the children take in their drawings and give them to Dad, as this would not be allowed. The sniffer dog was introduced… a potentially frightening situation for some children, but we made it a fun, friendly and acceptable situation. A dog wagging its tail, a child patting it… something that happens in a normal, everyday situation too. In the Christmas party scene I concentrated on the fact that the family were all together and celebrating. But the presence of the guards is felt in the background, softened by the close presence of a toddler helping himself to the festive food!

The use of colour was important throughout the book… Generally I was careful not to make the feel of the illustrations too gloomy, but I did so deliberately in the children’s first visit, where they are outside the prison gates. I also played around with scale, the smallness and vulnerability of the children in comparison to the huge, dark prison gates. Then I created a happier mood, using joyful bright colours with a feeling of light and movement in the part of the story where Milly and Sam listen to the cd of Dad’s stories, emphasising how stories have the ability to transport you into a different world.

The cover illustration was important and involved a good deal of discussion. The final version is a quiet and thoughtful image of a small girl in her own little world, reading her favourite book, with swallows and butterflies flying beyond the pages. But in the background, there is the subtle hint of bars, an ever-present but not dominating suggestion of prison.

As an author and illustrator, I visit schools all over the country. I’ll never forget one little girl who came up to me at the end of the day, so proud of the illustration she had done in the workshop. We were chatting away and then she began to tell me all about her father in prison and her uncle who had just come out. When Dad Was Away is a book for everyone. But it’s especially for her, and for the more than 170,000 children who are affected by the imprisonment of a parent or sibling in this country.

When Dad Was Away by Liz Weir, ill. Karin Littlewood (32pp; 978 1 8450 7913 0) is published by Janetta Otter-Barry Books at Frances Lincoln at £11.99 hbk.

The Ormiston Trust: www.ormistontrust.org