Stories to tell behind the scenes of Ben’s books

WHEN illustrator and author, Ben Sanders saw this year’s AFL season had been postponed, a large gap opened in his professional schedule.

“I had a big contract that was connected. When COVID hit, that fell apart and I wasn’t going to hold them to anything in the extraordinary circumstances,” he said.

“Everyone was pretty nervous at the time. I thought, I’ve got to keep busy. I don’t know what the future holds.”

With children’s books on sale in the UK market, Sanders connected with a publisher over there at the start of the year, who contracted him to illustrate a new series in collaboration with British author, Huw Lewis Jones.

The pandemic lockdown has meant this Bad Apple project could come to the fore, and Sanders has been more productive with it than he could have predicted.

“Huw approached me and said, ‘we need to do this together.’ I had a very busy time coming up, but I thought I’d see if I could fit one book into the first half of the year… Then COVID hit,” he said.

“I got through the first book really quickly. The plan wasn’t to produce the second book so soon, but the publisher said, ‘can you start the second one and see how far you get?’ I managed to get the two done in the time I wanted to get the first one done.

“The first book will come out in March next year. The second book was going to come out 12 months after, but now it can come out six months after the first, which is ideal to get momentum.”

With no time to twiddle his thumbs, Sanders said the last six months in his studio has been full of positivity, ironically developing the look of a character who has a not-so uplifting attitude.

“Bad Apple is a really, really dastardly character. He does a whole lot of bad things,” he said.

“Normally in a kids’ book, you’d have some kind of moral at the end, or the main character learns a lesson and is changed by the end. But the funny thing about this is that he gets worse and worse.

“Huw’s written a few manuscripts for this and the further into the series he goes, the more you find out there’s nothing redeemable about Bad Apple. He’s just a bad, bad dude, but he’s really likable and an adorable looking character.”

The second book, Apple Grumble has just been completed, featuring Bad Apple’s grandmother, Granny Smith.

“She comes to teach him a few lessons and get him on the right track, but he’s even cruel to her. Don’t expect a moral in the stories,” Sanders laughed.

“Huw’s written some wicked stuff, which I’ve really enjoyed drawing to, because the bad stuff he does is a lot of fun and quite inventive. It’s been a pleasure working on it.”

My Book and My Pet are Australian-produced picture books released last year, written and illustrated by Sanders. A few weeks ago, they were released in the United States, Canada and Turkey.

“I’m pretty excited. The North American market is a lot bigger. I’ve already had some good feedback from people online, and there’s been some nice reviews. I’m rapt.

“It’s a thrill to see my book in other languages, including Western Armenian and Turkish. It’s fun. My first book went to South Korea, and to see my name in another language is cool.”

Sanders has three small paintings exhibited for three more days in the One Hundred Faces art installation at Playing in the Attic on Sturt Street.

Visit bensanders.com.au.