About Sid - by Sarah Baker and Hazel Alemany

About Sid!

We are so pleased that you want to find out more about the book, its creators and the journey travelled to get to this point. So, let’s start at the beginning.

And the winner is . . .

Sarah started writing children’s picture book texts five years ago. With ten stories in her portfolio, Sarah asked fellow writers and professionals working with children to rate their preferences. And yes, you’ve guessed it! The Catapult Kid came out as a resounding favourite!

Despite being a self-confessed diabolical artist, the process of reading hundreds of picture books to her three young children gave rise to strong views about the type of illustrations Sarah wanted to accompany her text. Every verse she created came with a visual image in her mind. From the very first draft to the final days of going to print, Sarah knew the quality and style of the illustrations could make or break her story.

Sarah commissioned graphic designer, Hazel Alemany to bring Sid to life in line and colour. Hazel not only produced illustrations that delight Sarah every time she turns a page, she also single handedly managed the entire ‘print-ready’ process, designed and produced all the promotional material and is entirely responsible for this website design. In the words of two particularly speed-loving little crazies, ‘Hazel is epic-amazeballs!’ Neither Sarah or Hazel had any previous experience creating a picture book, so theirs really has been a baptism of faith; a process of learning by doing.

Along the way they have cautiously (on a few rare occasions) opened their scrap books to friends and family for moral support. In particular, Sarah has delved into the minds of a few brilliant friends and family members endowed with editorial genius. For their guidance, she is eternally grateful. But for the most part, this creation has been a two woman show.

Two and a half years later, their brilliant book is print ready and due for publication in summer 2019!

Who will enjoy The Catapult Kid?

If you enjoy picture books by the incredible Julia Donaldson (for style) and the hilarious Tom Fletcher (for silliness) you are the perfect reader for this book!

The Catapault Kid by Sarah Baker and illustrated by Hazel Alemany

 Sarah Baker

Hightown Writer, Sarah Baker, published her first children's book last summer.

You can buy it on-line here:

https://thecatapultkid.co.uk/about/

and read more about Sid tomorrow on this blogspot.

Hazel Alemany - illustrator

Lady of the Lamp (extract)

Flo waited in the clearing between the officer’s quarters and the field hospital, watching the mist gather in and curl around the folds of her cape. It was after two in the morning, but the tirade of guns had barely ceased. Yet again, the unimaginable had been relentless, an endless parade of butchered boys predictably speckled with prayers that begged for mercy and forgiveness tore her heart and faith to shreds as brutally as the cannons ripped at flesh. Twigs snapped beneath a carriage wheel drawing nearer and her heart thrummed as loudly as the drums of war.

But it wouldn’t be the wounded tonight. It wouldn’t be the desperate and dying who clung to her with their cold grabbing terrifying fingers. Tonight he was coming, her salve, her medicine. His remedial warmth, the soothing whispers of his kisses, the healing touch of his fingers on her neck brought her back to a life worth living in this hellish place which greedily consumed all that lived. In his arms, protected from the screams of men and machines she wasn’t anybody’s lady of the lamp.

She was a girl again, sensual, needy, longing for his embrace.

By Sarah Baker

(First Published in a Hightown Writers Anthology A Book of Delights 2016)