Clementine’s Christmas
by Annie White
(New Frontier Publishing)
Everyone I know loves celebrating Christmas and versatile author/illustrator Annie White adds to the festivities with her new Christmas picture book, Clementine’s Christmas. Clementine, Annie’s endearing canine character, experiences her own Christmas in this warm, funny story.
Thank you for speaking to Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog, Annie.
Guest author post about Clementine’s Christmas by Annie White
Clementine is back in her fourth adventure – Clementine’s Christmas.
‘It’s Christmas Eve. The tree is trimmed, the presents are all wrapped, and the family are full of excitement as they head off to bed. Granny stays up knitting a last-minute gift, while Clementine keeps her company and does her best to be helpful but somehow tangles everything up in the process.
When it’s time to open presents on Christmas morning, something isn’t quite right.’
The background for the story of Clementine’s Christmas came from years of my family gathering to celebrate Christmas after happy Christmas, last minute wrapping of hand-made (and sometimes incomplete) gifts and our beloved but over-eager labrador trying to be helpful and never quite succeeding.
Another influence was the Present Numbering System. To avoid presents losing their wrappings when they were constantly being prodded and peeped into by curious children, who just could NOT wait until Christmas Day, gifts were numbered, and a Master List of names-to-numbers was produced. (This works well if the list is not misplaced.)
The humour in this story is gentle and is largely seen in the images which co-exist with a simple and rhythmic narrative.
Clementine’s Christmas is about families getting together over the treasure and the trash of Christmas and loving every moment.
It is a light-hearted story where we can see that, even if things go a bit askew, there is still a lot of fun to be had.
Clementine first made an appearance in 2013 in Clementine’s Walk, a story that was assisted by the Australia Council’s Emerging Writer/ Illustrator’s Initiative. The original sketches of Clementine were of the blonde labrador from my childhood but, after some discussion with the publisher, we chose a more popular labradoodle look. However, despite her make-over, Clementine’s personality and approach to life remained the same – she was based on Millie, my first Studio Dog, a black labrador with a dash of kelpie.
Millie would sometimes sleep under my desk while I was working, especially if there was a hint of thunder in the air. On more than one occasion, she would bark suddenly making me jump and causing changes in the drawing – not always in a good way. This made me wonder what other situations would arise if Millie barked unexpectedly at other people – maybe there could be jigsaw pieces flying, knitting unravelling across the room and very grumpy chooks. And all Clementine wanted was to go for a walk!
And so, the story came about, complete with a map of the walk itself.
Two years later, Clementine’s Bath was published.
Once again, Clementine does not see eye-to-eye with her family, though she loves them dearly. Throughout the book, she tries desperately to avoid the bath her family is insisting she needs. She hides under the bed, behind the curtains and in Baby’s toybox but somehow her family always seem to know where she is.
(‘Her smell gave her away.’)
Millie passed away at the grand age of 15. She was intelligent, loyal, naughty, inspirational and fun and we still talk about her.
Sometime later, a new labrador puppy joined the studio – Daisy – who became the inspiration for Clementine’s Treasure.
‘Clementine has her eye on only one thing when the Queen comes to tea – a sparkly royal necklace! But what happens when the precious jewel goes missing?’
Very cute puppies attract lots of visitors and one admirer who came for a cuddle was my glamorous niece.
She arrived, looking very elegant and bent down to play with Daisy. It was then that we think the theft occurred.
As the cups of tea came out, my niece realised the delicate gold pendant had disappeared from around her neck!
Like in the story, we did search high and low for the pendant but only found the fine gold chain where it had hung. Needless to say, the missing pendant was recovered after a day or two of constant surveillance and, with plenty of soap and water, it was as good as new despite its journey through a canine digestive system.
The Clementine stories are a patchwork of our family’s everyday life, interesting people we’ve met along the way and some highly memorable events that have passed into family folklore.
The scruffy and loveable Clementine character is often dismissed in exasperation but frequently turns out to be the catalyst for bringing her family together, whether it’s by drumming up a walk, escaping from a bath, pilfering a precious jewel or offering assistance at Christmas time.
Clementine’s over exuberance, poor sense of timing and endearing character has remained constant since her first appearance over a decade ago.
The same cannot be said for the author, as I’ve found myself starting out as the Mum character in Clementine’s Walk and morphing into the Granny in Clementine’s Christmas!
*****
Clementine’s Christmas at New Frontier Publishing
Annie White has also recently illustrated Julie Murphy’s Beach Dogs, which will feature here soon.
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