Snowy

The best thing about living on Beetle Juice – better than the rocking at night, better than the splish! splash! of water on its sides – is Snowy.

Snowy is about a little girl called Rachel who lives on a barge. The barge is called Betelgeuse, but Rachel calls it Beetle Juice, and it is pulled along by the barge-horse, Snowy.

I wrote the picture book after I had spent a week of mornings on a barge (or narrow boat, as it is more properly called) with children from schools in North Cheshire. The barge was called Betelgeuse, and a little girl called Rachel did own it with her mum and dad. And their barge-horse was called Snowy. The children and I floated up and down the canal writing stories and poems about our adventures, and everybody wanted to write about Snowy, because they all loved her so much. Rachel’s mum told us how Rachel wanted to take Snowy to school one day, and that’s how I came to write this story.

I sent the story to Collins, the publishers, and they asked a wonderful artist called Keith Bowen to illustrate it. I told him that the story was about a real family, a real barge and a real horse, and I took him to meet them. His pictures are exactly right, and I think the cover with that image of Snowy coming towards you up the towpath is one of the best picture book covers I have ever seen.