Postie Mousie to the Rescue! A Marty Moose Q&A with Claire Powell

Consider, if you will, the early chapter book. It’s a transitional object at its core, meant to aid young readers in moving from easy readers to novels. I have keen memories of such books when I was a kid. I wanted to be able to read longer texts, but I just wasn’t quite there yet. These books occupied a very specific time in my reading life, and they continue to fill that gap and that need with children today. Often, they’re ideal for classroom readalouds, but I like to think that they’ve applications above and beyond that use.

I actually read a fair number of these books in a given year, so when I was offered the chance to talk to Claire Powell about her newest early chapter book series, it was lucky that I’d already read and thoroughly enjoyed the first installment.

Don’t know Claire Powell? Allow me to refresh your memory:

Look familiar? Yep, Claire was the illustrator of the mighty successful Swifts series. And now she has a very different series she’s working on that looks a little like this:

Marty Moose (so named because of a mix-up on his birth certificate) and his book First Class Mischief are out now in stores everywhere. Meanwhile, I couldn’t describe it any better than the publisher:

“Just because you’re small doesn’t mean you can’t be brave.

That’s the advice Great-Aunt Ada gives Marty Moose for his first day on the job as a mailmouse for the Little Ditch Post Office. With his mailbag in hand, Marty is ready to follow in her footsteps, but filling them proves difficult even with the help of a scrappy and energetic bunny named Nibbles. When a pair of pesky neighbors prevents him from delivering his last package, Marty and his new friend Nibbles must figure out together how to finish the job, even if that means breaking the rules. With lively, funny, and characterful illustrations and a charming narrative voice, this series first is just right for newly confident readers.”

Today, I’m talking with Claire about the book, her process, and all the little details that go into creating a book of this type and length (which, to be frank, is a darned difficult business):

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Betsy Bird: Claire! What a delight to get to talk to you today! Now you’ve been illustrating children’s books for years (my readers are probably VERY familiar with your illustrations in The Swifts series) but this is your first authorial debut. And you didn’t just try your hand at picture books, but an early chapter book series! Why was that your choice, and how did you get the idea for Marty Moose in the first place?

Claire Powell: Thank you, Betsy! I’m thrilled to be here and excited to talk about Marty!

 The idea for Marty came about in such a fun, unexpected way. I live in a rural countryside area and was out walking one day when I spotted a mouse darting through the undergrowth. As I walked on, I found myself imagining what the mouse might be up to, and I chuckled at the thought of it posting letters and running errands.

My mum’s birthday was coming up, and when I got home, I decided to make her a birthday card. Inspired by the mouse I’d seen, I painted a little mouse wearing a postal uniform. I attached a tiny letter to the front of the card and wrote her birthday message on it, then popped it in the post. On the day of her birthday, I called her to see what she thought. She loved the drawing of the mouse — but made no mention of the tiny letter!

It turned out the letter had fallen off inside the envelope, and my dad had thrown it in the bin. He was sent to retrieve it, but the mishap sparked an idea: what if there was a postmouse, and every time he posted a letter, something went wrong?

I initially thought it might work as a picture book, but as I developed the idea it quickly became clear that I wanted to write in a longer format. Marty’s world grew and grew, and before long I had invented the village of Little Ditch and an entire cast of characters to live alongside him. My agent and I agreed it would work best as a chapter book series, and we set to work on the pitch.

BB: This next question is a bit related. These books are bound to be beloved by postal carriers everywhere since the occupation is seen as a kind of amalgamation of bold explorer and survivalist. Great-Aunt Ada serves as both Marty’s inspiration and impossible-to-live-up-to standard. So why a postal carrier as your hero?

Claire: I have always loved writing letters. My own Aunt, Auntie Shirley, has written to me all my life, and I loved — and still love — receiving her long letters in the post. I find the digital age we live in slightly overwhelming at times, and I often long for the simplicity of bygone days when letters were a primary form of communication.

When I drew Marty on that birthday card, I had no idea he would one day become the hero of a story. But looking back, I realise that a postie — as we call them here — is the perfect hero. Marty is an integral part of his community. He connects people, carries their news, secrets, and celebrations, and quietly keeps everything moving.

In my eyes, a postal carrier does far more than deliver post. They are a reassuring, familiar presence — someone you see every day, rain or shine — and a reminder that small, ordinary jobs can be deeply important. Marty may be small, but his role in Little Ditch matters enormously, and that makes him heroic.

BB: Now my favorite subject: typography. And this is what separates the wheat from the chaff when we’re talking about early chapter books. It isn’t just that you wrote and illustrated Marty Moose. Each page is this delicious blend of words and images all dancing about the page in interesting ways. But how does that even work when you’re sketching the book out? Do you write the words first then figure out the typography later? Does the Art Director have a key say in where things go? Give us a sense of how these pages come to be!

Claire: I worked as a graphic designer for many years — it’s what I studied at university — and I’ve always had a love of typography. However, designing a book is a specialist skill and a real art form, so I knew I wanted my Art Director, Jamie Hammond at Walker Books, to oversee the series layout, design, and typography. From the start, we wanted the books to feel very considered, and we worked closely early on to establish the design elements and typographic style that would carry through the series.

The manuscript always comes first, but as I write I include illustration notes for my editor, Gráinne Clear, and for Jamie. Once we have a finished draft, Jamie lays out the text and briefs me on the illustrations — I can’t be left to decide what to illustrate, as I’d want to draw everything! Jamie also roughly places the sound words, which feature heavily in the series, so I can sketch around them.

After I’ve delivered the final artwork — which I hand-illustrate using traditional pen and ink — Jamie finalises the text, choosing and adjusting typefaces to reflect the playful sound words throughout.

It’s a highly collaborative process, but the praise for the book’s design very much belongs to Jamie.

BB: Oh, I’ve been wanting to ask you this ever since I read the book. In the course of his travels Marty makes the acquaintance of a bunny named Nibbles Frizzby. Aside from the great name (and the names in this book are truly great) I had the sneaking suspicion that you yourself knew a Nibbles once. Or, at least, someone with a Nibbles-adjacent personality. So to broaden the question, are there any characters in this book that remind you of people you’ve known in your own life? 

Claire: Absolutely — Nibbles is me. She’s a fictional representation of my beautifully bouncy and often bonkers ADHD brain. People probably associate me more with Nibbles: lively, confident, and a little quirky. Marty is also me, but he represents a side that only my nearest and dearest tend to see — someone who wants to do well, who worries, doubts himself, and tries his best even when things don’t go to plan.

Some of the other characters contain hints of people I’ve met or known — there are elements of an old boss in Cyril, for example. But mostly, a character is born when I draw them for the first time and they immediately come alive in my mind. If I can hear them talking, see them walking, and feel as though I know them, then I know I’ve cracked it.

I’m a great observer of people, so I suspect there are traces of everyone I’ve ever met in my characters, whether that’s obvious or not.

BB: Tell us a bit about the early drafts of this book. Were there ideas you wanted to include but that got cut out? Or things that got added much later that weren’t part of the original manuscript? 

Claire: The first book was written in two parts. I wrote the opening four chapters for the pitch alongside my agent, then completed the remaining chapters once the series had been commissioned, working closely with my editor, Gráinne. As part of the pitch, my agent and I had submitted a three-page plot summary for book one, and it’s fascinating to look back at it now. For the most part, the early full draft stayed true to that original idea.

No ideas were cut, but we did add elements, particularly towards the end of the story, where the mischief-maker gets their comeuppance. That wasn’t in my original outline, but it would have been disappointing for readers if they’d* got away with it, not to mention the wrong message for children.

What was also missing from my original plot was Marty’s internal struggle to prove himself worthy of the job he’s been given. As I got to know Marty better through writing, I was able to weave in his emotional journey, which I hope helps readers feel closer to him and perhaps even see a little of themselves in him.

(* I’m trying very hard not to give away any spoilers!)

BB: Finally, what’s next for Marty? And what’s next for you? What else are you working on these days?

Claire: Marty still has many adventures ahead of him! I’m currently writing book three … or, more accurately, bashing my head against a wall while editing the second draft of book three, which feels like a more honest description.

The second book in the series, Marty Moose: The Great Stamp-ede, publishes in the UK this March. It’s very different from book one. Marty and Nibbles find themselves caught up in the Annual Fastest Feathers Race, which is missing its prize: a Golden Egg. Marty must deliver it to the finish line before the race ends but it turns out that isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. It’s a chaotic caper with lots of new characters, and the race takes us through many corners of Little Ditch, including Foggy Forest and Bandits’ Burrow. It was a tough manuscript to crack, but I got there in the end.

I also have a couple of other projects in the studio. Fans of The Swifts written by Beth Lincoln will be pleased to hear I’m sketching the third book, with final artwork due in May. And fans of Montgomery BonBon written by Alasdair Beckett-King may be sad (as I am!) to hear that I’m starting the final artwork for the very last book in that series next week. Both series have been a huge part of my life for the past three years, so it will feel strange to say goodbye… but when one book closes, another opens, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

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It rarely happens that I end up with extra images after an interview, but I was sent such a lovely plethora of photos of Claire’s maps for this book that I feel it would be doing her, myself, and you, my readers, a disservice if I didn’t include them here in some way:

Huge thanks to Claire for taking such time and attention with my questions today. And thanks too to Anna Abell and the folks at Candlewick Press for helping to put this whole talk together. As mentioned before, Marty Moose: First Class Mischief is out in fine bookstores everywhere, so look for it on your early chapter book shelves now!

Filed under: Interviews