MADAME wdobecie, SOPHIE DAHL illustrated by LAUREN O’HARA ‘There's a strange new guest at the Mermaid Hotel—a very old lady with a growly voice, bags stuffed with jewelry and coins and curiosities, and a beady-eyed pet tortoise. Mabel, whose parents run the hotel, is suspicious. Who is this Madame Badobedah (it rhymes with Oo Ia la) who has come to stay indefinitely and never has any visitors? To find out, Mabel puts on her spy costume and observes the new guest. Conclusion? She must be a secret supervillain hiding out from the law. The grown-ups think Madame Badobedah is a bit rude—and sad—but when she invites “dahlink” Mabel for a cup of forbidden tea and a game of pirates, the two begin a series of imaginary adventures together, and Mabel realizes that first impressions can sometimes be very wrong. Conjuring On sale April 7, 2020 HC:978 1-5362.1022.4 two quirky heroines that young readers will 518.99 (§24.99 CAN) love, Sophie Dahl adds her talented voice to Ages 5-8 +56 pages ae a grand tradition of books that celebrate the alliance of the old and young in the face of humdrum adults, while Lauren O'Hara's illustrations are as packed with intriguing We details as Madame Badobedah’s suitcases. WALKER BOOKS USAbout the Creators SOPHIE DAHL began her working life asa teenage fashion model, but books and words were her first love. In 2003 she published The Man with the Dancing Eyes, an illustrated novella, which she followed in 2007 with her first novel, Playing with the Grown-ups. A devoted home cook, she has also written two cookbooks, Very Fond of Food: A Year in Recipes and Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, in addition to writing and presenting two Bl at Condé Nast Traveller, was a longtime contributing editor at British Vogue, and has written nonfiction essays for Vogue (US), Harper's Bazaar (UK), the Observer (UK), the Guardian (UK), and the Times (London). Sophie Dah lives in the countryside with her husband, daughters, rescue dog, cat, and tortoise. Madame Badobedch is her first book for children. yrime-time shows about food. She is a contributing editor LAUREN O’HARA is an illustrator from the north of England. As a child she loved reading fairy tales, painting insects, and listening to her grandmother's stories. She studied art and illustration at Kingston University, then designed window displays and props for films. Her career as an illustrator began when she and her sister, Natalia, worked together on a picture book, Hortense and the Shadow. This was published in 2017 and followed in 2018 by The Bandit Queen Lauren O'Hara currently lives in a converted church in Dublin, Ireland, with her partner, their cat Ida, and assorted ghosts.Q&A with Sophie Dahl Where did you get your inspiration for Madame Badobedah? ‘My grandmother lived on the Sussex coast. In my head I saw Mabel walking on a shingle beach in her bare feet with her fishing net, going home to a tumbledown B and B full of secrets Then an enigmatic old lady, surrounded by trunks, unappealing to grown-ups but catnip to a child, walking into the B and B. I'm ever interested by people's backstories, how they ended up where they are, and how, much of the time, we don't know half of what people have lived. That was the impetus for Madame Badobedah herself. I'm a geek about vintage wallpaper, dressing tables, and perfume bottles, so all of those things became a part of the fabric of Madame B, too. As a child, I was a fiend for the idea of secret passages leading to magical lands, and so I couldn't have a story without a magical land. What appealed to you about the setting of a hotel for this story? I guess that, again, it goes back to backstories, and transience, Hotels are the keepers of secrets. So much goes on in them! Was Mabel’s character inspired by anyone? Iwas an only child until I was seven. I was very nosy and loved detective books —Emil and the Detectives, Harriet the Spy—and was convinced there were secret passages lurking at every corner, Mabel’s adventuring and pragmatic nature is all my daughters! What made you want to write a children’s book? q “sy Because of the Dahl mantle, Td sworn never to touch children's books and wrote about food and grown-up fiction, Then I had children and was reading all of those books I loved as a child, and it felt like a totally natural (albeit terrifying) trajectory. I guess if Iwas going to think too deeply about my grandfather's legacy, Td never leave my bedroom and lie rocking in my bed and staring at the wall, so I rolled my sleeves up and just got on with itWere you inspired by your ‘own children? ‘As a parent to a six- and an eight year-old, I spend a lot of time reading with my kids. I got to reread all the classics from my childhood and my siblings’ childhoods: long-form picture books like Miss Rumphius, Make Way for Ducklings, Madeline, We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Owl Babies, Five Minutes’ Peace, and the rest. Through my kids, I've also discovered exciting contemporary authors like Jessica Love, Polly Dunbar, Laura Dockrill, and Sonya Harnett, Now we're onto long-form fiction; Astrid Lindgren, Joan Aiken, David Walliams, and Chris Riddell. I's a treat to discover and rediscover books through their eyes. Where do you find literary inspiration? My kids, their friends, people-watching, reading, places. It’s all around How did you come up with the name Madame Badobedah? My step-grandmother would say, “Who do you think you are, Madame Badobedah?” And it stuck. 'd play 2 game of it with my kids, where I was a mysterious old lady called Madame Badobedah and they could boss me around. Do you think adults will see a different layer to the story when reading it with their children? Obviously there's a pathos to her. She's on her own; she's escaped a war; she's very vulnerable. But to Mabel, she’s something else entirely, and I love this: that to children, grown-ups are who they are then and there, not in their past. How did you find working with an illustrator on this book? Loved working with Lauren. She intuited so much of what I saw in my head, but also made 1 perfectly her own. The illustrations were both so familiar and exciting, She's supremely talented. In my head, Madame B was a mix of Auntie Mame and an elderly Eastern European Ava Gardner with a bit of my and my husband's grandmothers thrown in. Lauren nailed it What were your favorite books to read as a child? Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter; The Brothers Lionheart; The Wolves of Willoughby Chase; Good Night, Mr. Tom. The Ramona books. The list is endless!A Note from Lauren O’Hara Madame Badobedah was a delight of a book to illustrate, Sophie created a world so full of joy, humor, and tenderness; T was hooked from the first page. I was itching to bring her world into full and colorful life Mabel seemed to spring to life fully formed from the very first rough drawings. Her grumpy little face and suspicious glances often made me laugh as I sketched. Madame B was more challenging After a lot of attempts, she ended up looking rather like my grandmother, who was an elegant and formidable redhead with a passion for antique jewelry and bichons. Sophie described Madame Badobedah’s flamboyance, and [had great fun designing costumes by watching old Marlene Dietrich and Gloria Swanson movies and sketching feather boas and gold lamé leggings. The world of the book is gorgeous. I enjoyed switching between Mabel's home in a little English bed-and-breakfast by the sea and Madame Badobedah's past as an émigré and later a young ballerina in New York. I used two color palettes to show these worlds: buttercup yellow, cadmium blue, and peppermint green for Mabel’s world, and a darker, more subdued palette of maroon, navy, and gold for Madame B, One of my favorite parts of the process of making a picture book is the visual research. For Madame Badobedah, I looked at a lot of midcentury British artists and designers, including Eric Ravilious and John Piper, and the gorgeous illustrations of Kathleen Hale and Edward Ardizzone Eetoteee era