Lauren Child and Ruby Redfort

Charlie and Lola is my favourite and my best. Imagine my chagrin when I wrote Tiger Aspect Productions in London last year and was informed that they are no longer producing new episodes of Charlie and Lola. I look forward to seeing their new effort, an African-themed animated show, but am nothing less than despondent about losing Charlie and Lola so quickly; I still maintain that it is hands down the best show on television (Sesame Street, being an icon, is out of competition). But that’s all right; there’s still creator/author Lauren Child, right? Well, her newest venture takes her beyond the C&L realm, and actually back to her roots before she created that property.

I learned from the March 20 KidScreen newsletter that Child has signed with HarperCollins Children’s Books to create a six-book series called Ruby Redfort. Here’s the story, by Emily Claire Afan, in full (original context here):

“In the lead-up to the Bologna Children's Book Fair next month [already past now], HarperCollins Children's Books has acquired the worldwide rights to Lauren Child's six-book series Ruby Redfort.

“An author and illustrator whose first books I Want a Pet and Clarice Bean, That's Me were published a decade ago, Child also created the Charlie & Lola picture book series that spawned the award-winning animated series currently airing on the BBC.

“Ruby Redfort is actually a spin-off of Child's Clarice Bean, That's Me, starring an undercover agent and mystery solver who is Clarice's favorite literary character.

“Fall 2010 will see the series kick off with the first book's global launch, and HC is prepping a major launch campaign around the property with a high-profile PR and media marketing campaign.”


So the concept here is that Child will be writing the books that her literary heroine Clarice Bean has been reading for so long. Now, if any Tiger Aspect folks happen to be reading, for about a year now I’ve been longing to do the same thing cinematically and make a Bat Cat series. I am ready to start the bible at a moment’s notice… Write me!!!!

In the meantime, I don’t know what the new venture means for the fate of the literary Charlie and Lola, but let’s hope it doesn’t signal the end, just a diversion. Lauren Child’s website is a delight (though be aware that it’s flash-based and will fill your whole monitor), but it doesn’t provide any information on this new venture. For that the best article I found was this one, from March 20, which also informs us Child will get a million quid for her efforts. That’s not J.K. Rowling territory, but, my heavens, it’s certainly not bad for a picture book author! That’s US$1,416,499.

In addition, here’s an interview with Child from 2003, before Charlie and Lola took off and hence from the time she was working with Ruby Redfort’s source material. And here’s another quick little post on the announcement from the blog Children’s Books for Grown-Ups. The author Natasha Worswick says she wrote a paper in her master’s program on Child’s illustrations—that I would very much like to read. And there’s also a Telegraph article on the deal. Finally, a small little slideshow of some of Child’s artwork.

In any case, let’s hope Child doesn’t forget us Charlie and Lola fans—it’s how I got my daughter to eat moon squirters—and here’s wishing her the best of luck with Ruby!