In August of 2021, a website sharing and promoting poetry written for children was launched for the first time. The Dirigible Balloon’s first flight featured thirty-six poems created by twelve poets. Since that upload, the DB has gone from strength to strength, attracting a growing global readership and poets contributing their work from all over the UK plus Ireland, Europe, the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Africa and India.
Now with well over 1600 freely accessible poems from around 350 poets worldwide (some famous and others very new to writing for children), written mainly in English (but also poems in Yiddish, Welsh and Māori as well as a smattering of Scots vernacular, Dutch, Russian and Zulu thanks to Michael Rosen, Rhiannon Oliver, Kathryn Dove and David Bleiman), with one anthology published and a second one on the way, it can safely be said that the Dirigible Balloon has been a greater success than its creator and editor Jonathan Humble could have imagined.
The DB’s second printed anthology, Sky Surfing: Excellent Adventures in a Poetry Balloon, will be available through Yorkshire Times Publishing in December of 2024 (all profits being donated to Juvenile Arthritis Research, registered charity number 1091620). Humble admits that the book wouldn’t be possible without the fantastic support of 66 poets and 22 artists, all giving permission to allow the use of their poems and illustrations in the Dirigible Balloon’s latest project.
With contributions once again from poets like Colin West, Carole Bromley, Michael Rosen, Philip Ardagh, Emma Purshouse, Zaro Weil and Brian Moses, plus many other writers and illustrators whose names are less familiar but whose talent is undeniable, there is a new and very welcome Balloonist on board. The latest addition to the crew is none other than author, illustrator, political cartoonist and former Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell OBE.
Riddell has written and illustrated many wonderful books. He has won the UNESCO Prize, the Greenaway Medal, the Nestlé Gold Award and the Hay Festival Medal for Illustration as well as the Costa Children’s Book Award. He’s collaborated with many other marvellous writers including Paul Stewart, Neil Gaiman and Michael Rosen. He continues to be a tireless champion of reading for children and illustration in the modern age and has rightly taken his place alongside giants such as Raymond Briggs, Quentin Blake, Shirley Hughes, Roald Dahl, Michael Morpurgo and Michael Rosen as one of the most popular figures in Children’s literature.
As laureate, he travelled around the country, chronicling his adventures in a series of daily diary illustrations. He was (and is) a most effective ambassador for libraries, bookshops and all things conducive to the development children’s imaginations. He continues to be passionate about encouraging writing and drawing especially among the young.
The fact he has created pictures specifically for a number of poems in the next Dirigible Balloon anthology, Humble finds very exciting:
“Chris is, of course, a very busy chap with all sorts of other projects under way and we are massively grateful that despite the obvious demands on his time, he’d still consider helping us out with our little labour of love.
Over at the Dirigible Balloon we try to do our bit to help and highlight the wealth of writing talent that is so obviously out there. The importance of poetry in fostering children’s appreciation of creative language as well as supporting their emotional, spiritual and cognitive development, appears to be lost on so many people with influence in the higher spheres of education (although with the most recent change in Government, I’m feeling optimistic that such a situation will change). We’ve also tried to encourage schools to send in work from their pupils so that we might highlight their poems on the DB.”
Humble goes on to say: “The Balloon is a small venture in the vast world of literature. Within publishing and the associated media, we tend to be overlooked. This doesn’t deter us (the most important people are the poets, children, families, schools and teachers who have engaged with our mission and poetic content). Up here in the troposphere, skimming the clouds, soaring with eagles and dreaming with poets, we feel enormously privileged. The view is spectacular and the horizon is the place where we are heading (and don’t worry, we’ve certainly packed plenty of sandwiches, flasks of tea and juice for the journey).”
Sky Surfing will be available to purchase in December 2024 through the Dirigible Balloon website (https://dirigibleballoon.org).
Dirigible Balloon picture by Em Humble
Sky Surfing cover picture by Chris Riddell
