She had a friend who “licked his child” when he got to the part in the 1993 book of Mr McGee and the Blackberry Jam, where McGee gets licked by heifers crowding around.
She said the books were designed to communicate with babies who hadn’t yet learnt to talk.
“When a baby doesn’t have any language, they have got sound,” Allen said. “They can read the pictures, and if there’s a voice conveying the meaning of the story, the child will get it without words, without language.”
“Noise is important,” she said, interrupting her line of thought with a loud “COCK – a-DOODLE DO”.
“It is almost everything here.”
Visiting the new exhibition with his children Eva, 6, and Jamie, 8, Richard Emanuel, a business manager with Nine Plus – which owns the Herald – said the family were “big time fans” of Allen’s books.
“It is not like your normal storybook; you get very animated and involved.”
Allen started writing in her 40s after moving from New Zealand to Australia. She said she had been miserable, her children were at school, her husband preoccupied with work, and they had bought a big house with stairs to please her two children. It had potential for renovation but she needed funds.
With a bundle of her drawings, she visited HarperCollins Publishing. Told there was no work for illustrators, they suggested she write a book to go with her illustrations.
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Recalling her walk home that day, Allen said she identified her strengths. She could draw, she knew preschool children from her time working in the NZ playcentre movement, and she could talk.
“As I walked across the Harbour Bridge, I said, ‘Pamela you are an author’.”
She also realised she could recognise bad writing. She is now working with others on a “recipe book of how to write a good book”.
The State Librarian, Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon, said the exhibition was a way to show families that the library loved having them visit.
The Curious World of Pamela Allen runs until 2027. It is free to visit.
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