The books about Betsy!
under Thomas grade of status, because the books were made five years later. But Betsy as character, is four year older than Thomas.
Betsy was created when it came to the issue of lojalty for the smaller children. I couldn't let Thomas go to the dentist, because that should have required closer pictures. Thomas is like you know, allways wholesized in every pic. So I tryed with a little girl called Betsy instead...
Betsy brought the whole idea a new dimension... Thomas was an "I am" character and Betsy became an "I feel" character. The books have more reading text, that describes her and her world. A world that I believe every 4-7 year old children lives in. When things had been sorted out, but the feelings is still in some kind of kaos.
Betsy live in the grownups world. She see everything they do and she want's to do it in the same way.... But inside her, there is another little girl who would like to do things different... yeah, thats right. She became the oppositegirl !
Who wouldn't recognize this feeling?
To add to the picture, there is a little brother who Betsy loves.... and hates. Some times she rather change and be a little brother her self, but to be an older sister that knows more about things than he does, is also something she likes.
When I had done a couple of books about Betsy she started to live her own life. She became a little bit "more" than Thomas in her independence as a bookcharacter. Inspired from... well I don't really know, but both from my self and from my own kids and also other kids I'd known.
Most of the older sisters and brothers recognize the feeling of having the power to scare their younger siblings. It's fun as long the youngest doesn´t start to cry, because then the feeling of regret take over.
I drawed the expression of all this feelings with a careful hand. I felt that my psycologic experience would be more expressed in the picture than in the text. Children are more familiar to interpret pictures than reading some text. My goal was to establish that! But even more fun it was to now have a reason to explain a vacuumcleaners function, when Betsy were looking for babybrothers sock inside.
In that way the books of Betsy were built. A kind of emotional existence with practical contributions.
| When I created the books of Thomas and Betsy I never deliberately made
them pedagogical. There was more of a need for my self to draw them.
The inspiration to Betsy was given to me when my "bookchildren"
had to go to the dentist, cause that's the need for every children.
In that point Betsy was there in my pen. As the drawing artist I am, it allways had been important to let the pictures talk for them self. In both Thomas and Betsy it's the pictures that made the text. I drawed with a goal, with a special amounth of pictures... and a story written with carbon on a notepad who |
I'd said it from the very first day I handled over the Thomas-script (it was only pictures) to the publisher. But I was told that the book had to be written or else no one could read it. As an adault!
Okey, after 30 year (Betsy is 30 years old in 2004) I feel that I agree. But the drawing artist shouldn't follow a text - the text should follow the pictures!
I don't know, but maybe thats why Betsy and Thomas still is going strong in childrens mind. I've received letters from far away (Canada for example). And the letters are written by children that now growned up and they just had to tell me how happy they felt when they saw their beloved Betsy and Thomas on my homesite on the www. And the website is in swedish! I'm very happy cause it shows me what a great job I'd done!
Gunilla Wolde
