Cressida Cowell, interviewed by Susie Mesure for The Independent
“The competition is so tough. I put in all those pictures because kids today are much more visual than when I was growing up. The pictures make a kid who’s got it in their head that books are dull, that books are associated with school, and all those reading schemes, feel they’re exciting, that they’re fun.”
She packs in the action, ever conscious that readers could opt to watch TV or do just about anything on an iPad rather than read another chapter. This, she thinks, affects the types of new books out there. “I do think that children don’t have the attention span that we used to have when we were little, so they’re not necessarily going to get excited by the same books you loved when you were a kid. I don’t think that Black Beauty is necessarily going to set a kid on fire,” she says.