Today we talk about The Adventures of Slibby the Snail. The stolen food, a book by Ivan Kules, published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Ivan Kules, to get to know him better, where he found the inspiration that led him to the writing of his book The Adventures of Slibby the Snail. The stolen food, as well as how it felt to see his book published.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- Was the idea for this book born at a particular moment?
The idea for this book was born as an interactive book app for kids (for mobile phones and tablets) back in 2011. I was playing around with some Apple apps for book authors and thinking that it would be great to write something for my (then 4yrs old) daughter Dora. I wrote the initial idea about the snail who is helping his friends, but soon I realized that just “words” won’t be enough, that I should put some nice graphics inside the story. Bit by bit, with help from a talented friend Tina, we assembled the storyline and outline if the book. Then I found a really talented programmer Dina, who held me develop the application. The app was alive on the AppStore for two years and it was downloaded around 100.000 times (for free 😊). Later, I expanded the story and decided to publish it as a book 😊.
- Where did you find the inspiration to talk about a snail and its adventures?
The true inspiration was my daughter Dora, who was four at the time. When she was a baby, we started to read her bedtime stories (Fifi and the Flowertots, Disney stories, fables, etc.) and often I had to make up additions to those stories. I actually end up making up a lot of those stories and at some point decided to put them on paper. The story about a little snail who is helping his friends was the cutest one to my daughter, and that’s how I decided to pursue it, finish it and publish it 😊. But real magic happened when artwork was done and when Slibby really became live. When I was able to see that little snail in all those colours I was thrilled and ideas just started popping up. It was much easier to finish the book once the characters became live.
- What would you like to hear from your young readers?
I just hope that the little ones have a nice time reading (or listening) to this story and enjoy the artwork. Hopefully, kids will remember the point of this book and that is – always try to be a good friend. You don’t have to do bad things, bully anybody and be mean, just to get attention from other kids. When you see that someone is in trouble, help them because what goes around, comes around. Saying that, I would really love to hear from kids and parents how they liked the book (or did not like it 😊) and maybe hear some of the suggestions from them for my future books. It really helps to get feedback from readers, no matter good or bad. We can always do better, correct what we did wrong, just like Desmond the Grasshopper in this book did 😊.
- How did it feel to see your book published?
The book was sitting on my computer for more than eight years. I totally forgot that I even had a manuscript 😊. One day, I saw a lady on Facebook, holding hers just published children’s book and it just hit me, I must find my work, update it and try to publish it. It is better that book comes alive, and even fails, if necessary, then just to sit on my hard drive. When the opportunity to publish the book with Europe Books appeared I was thrilled. I immediately remembered how much I enjoyed writing the book and how happy and productive I felt doing that. It was a special moment for me when I saw that book was available on Europe Book’s website. It really feels too good to have something of yours to, something that you did, available to everybody to see. Whatever I do from now on, I will always have a little piece of me out there in the world and that feels great! 😊
- Are you working on new writing projects that you can tell us about?
Currently, I’m working on another illustrated children’s book, named Ladybug Zee. You can guess, it is a story about a little ladybug, who is finding her place in the world. The artwork and the basic storyline is done, but there is still a lot of work to be done. But, more information about that – coming soon! 😊
Europe Books thanks the author Ivan Kules once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book The Adventures of Slibby the Snail. The stolen food. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, I wish you to immerse yourself in the adventures of the sweet little creature Slibby; and always remember that, no matter how adult you are, books for children have a lot to teach us all! They have the ability to make us reach fantastic worlds, be surronded by strange creatures and, at the same time, teach us important life lessons to put into practice every day.
So, my dear reader, I just have to wish you a good and pleasant reading!
Your Editor!