Saturday, Sunday by Natalie Kate Forbes, illustrated by Danny Snell
Published by Affirm Press
Guest Author Post by Natalie Kate Forbes about Saturday, Sunday
Thank you for speaking to Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog about your new picture book, Natalie. Saturday, Sunday captures many people’s weekends with its mixture of busyness and relaxation and will particularly resonate with young families. Thanks also for your honest insights.
Saturday, Sunday origins
Saturday brings a whirlwind of sports, play dates, grocery shopping, and other errands before racing home for dinner, bath and bed before lights out.
Sunday is a relaxed day of breakfast in bed, playing with toys, picking veggies, watching clouds and fully enjoying a day without any plans or expectations.
Both days are packed with activities, but no matter what the family encounters, they have fun because they are together.
I can’t quite pinpoint where this story came from, as my memory is terrible at the best of times. I had previously written poems about my nephew who was born premature and passed away after two weeks. I had the idea to extend a particular poem into a children’s book to help families with kids understand why their baby sister or brother hasn’t or might not come home. It is still a work in progress, but when I made that decision, a flood of ideas came to me, seemingly all at once.
I would be furiously jotting everything down in notes on my phone as they popped into my head (from a title or a line of text, to a fully formed outline) usually late at night when my brain is most active – of course, when I’m trying to fall asleep.
I’m generally working on multiple ideas at a time – going where the creativity pulls me, but Saturday, Sunday was quite reflective of my ‘new’ life.
I had my first baby in 2018 and along with postnatal depression, I had a fairly difficult time with her in the car, so when we finally did make it out of the house, we would be out all day long. I would try to get everything over and done with in one go so I would get all the ‘stressful tasks’ done at once and avoid having to go in the car another day.
Over the years, hearing stories from family and friends I got a sense that mostly everything – the chores, the shopping, the sports lessons – take place on Saturdays, giving way to a relaxing Sunday before the chaos starts again on Monday.
I remember my sister telling me how she gave her son a sheet of stickers that he could give out to people doing their shopping which made a normally boring task, enjoyable.
I wanted to capture the chaos of the Saturday, whilst making it feel like a cozy and fun family experience. And on the opposite end of the scale, I wanted Sunday to be super chill. Where Sunday is also a full day – it’s just filled with activities that happen organically and are more chill in nature… the day just rolls on from one thing to another without thought. Again, I was keen to promote strong family bonds and connections.
I feel a strong connection to Saturday, Sunday because we usually have very busy weeks and although there always seems to be something happening on Saturday, Sunday is a day with no plans, no timelines, and we can potter around the house and garden, enjoying the relaxed moments in life, together.
I am so blown away with the illustrations by Danny. Whenever I write, I see images in my head of the characters and what they are doing, but the way that he has captured the family with so much movement and expression just makes my heart soar. And the bath scene where the little boy has given Rufus a bubble beard is just beautiful. I have no understanding of how he created such perfect images for every single scene. I could (and have) spent hours just looking at all of the details on every page and I fall in love more every time I look at them. I am in awe of his work, and this book wouldn’t be what it is without his illustrations.
(Danny’s illustrations certainly reflect the actions of real children and families. Danny continues to be an illustrator to watch and collect and has hit his stride in his recent picture books.)
Thanks so much for reading Saturday, Sunday – I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Saturday, Sunday by Natalie Kate Forbes, illustrated by Danny Snell(Affirm Press) published 31 December 2024.
PaperbarkWords interview with Danny Snell (& Deborah Frenkel) about The Truck Cat
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