Children's author Steve Smallman is starry eyed

?When rock legend Meat Loaf was asked to pick a children's story to read on television, he chose Steve Smallman's book.

The father-of-four started out as an illustrator but is now an author of several well-known children's books, which have proved a favourite with the stars.

His stories include Don't Wake the Bear, Hare, which has been recorded by Myleene Klass for television. And Smelly Peter the Great Pea Eater beat off stiff competition from authors such as Julia Donaldson, who wrote The Gruffalo, to win the Sheffield Children's Book Award.

After leaving college in Cambridge, where he had studied vocational graphics, the Staffordshire author's first job was illustrating a book called The Antics.

This led to him getting his name known and he did the original art work for 1980s cartoon series The Raggy Dolls and Sesame Street comics as well as Postman Pat and the Bill and Ben books.

"It didn't occur to me until I was 17 that I could make money out of drawing," says Steve, of Lichfield, whose wife Ann is head of care at Acorns Children's Hospice.

"Everyone remembers The Raggy Dolls, but a lot of my work can be seen in educational books — the ones children bring home in their book bags to read at home.

"I mainly work from home and for 20 years I had an agent who got me a lot of work. However, after a while publishers started asking for me by name, so I didn't need the agent anymore." Steve, who lives in Cricket Lane, says he always sketches out his drawings in pencil first and then uses water colours or acrylics to finish it off.

"It takes me around three days to sketch out a 24-page book and then three weeks to produce the finished art work," says Steve.

"I have illustrated so many books over the years and some of the stories have been rubbish — but instead of moaning about it I decided to start writing.

"My first book was The Lamb Who Came for Dinner and it was read on CITV's Bookaboo programme by Meat Loaf.

"Meat Loaf was the biggest star they had, and it was the first programme in the series so they gave him a choice of 13 books — and he picked mine. He flew over from America, did the recording, donated the money he earned to charity and then flew home. I've recorded the programme and when I watch it I still can't believe that Meat Loaf is reading my book."

Other books Steve has written include A Hug for Humphrey, about a toy who doesn't know what purpose he has, The Monkey with the Bright Blue Bottom about a monkey who discovers a paint box and his latest is Dragon Stew about Vikings hunting a dragon.

Even though Steve is now working on five books he also travels around the country talking to children about writing and drawing stories. Recently he visited Bloxwich Library where he showed youngsters his work and talked to them about how to draw different characters. "I get the children to describe a character to me, and then I will draw it for them — so one child wanted to me to draw a giraffe who is helpful and who could fold up and fit into his bedroom.

"Once I have created that character then I get them to write a story about it — the pieces they come out with are always amazing."

Steve, who has one grand-daughter called Scarlet, adds: "Most children love to have stories read to them and it is great to watch them as they get more and more interested.

"First of all they lean forward, then they start shuffling towards me and by the end of the book some of them are even holding onto my shoes — it is great to see their enthusiasm for the stories. When I first started writing books I thought I would do the illustrations to go with it, but the publishers had different ideas.

"Each illustrator has his own style and they have wanted something different for each of my books."

Steve says his four children are grown-up now but he is making sure Scarlet grows up reading his books. "I've dedicated some of my books to Scarlet and she is only one now but hopefully she will grow up enjoying my books," he says. "The Lamb Who Came to Dinner has been translated into 16 different languages and has been turned into a theatre production in Sweden — so it is being enjoyed by youngsters around the world."