Inspiring Young Minds

Emily Kerr, co-founder of Unlocked Guide Books for Kids

Charlie Astor and George Whitefield, Founders of Sharky & George, children's party organisers.

Joe Craig, Author of Jimmy Coates spy series for children 

Speakers field questions.

Our four young speakers came to a merry Burns Night consensus. Ask children what they think and start with the child in mind – value their imaginations; Don't make assumptions: don't try to be Mr. Giggles when kids prefer to talk to an older brother figure; don't assume that children aren't eating school dinners because of the food, or because school dinners aren't cool. No, they just don't like queuing and want to be first to the basket ball hoop outside. As for books, don't write for children based on the old priorities of character and setting: rather cater to children's short attention spans in another way...

Emily Kerr left her full time job at Bain and founded a publisher of guide books for children. Starting a very different sort of company, she did not abandon the principles learnt as a consultant: she and her childhood friend turned business partner took ingenious measures to understand their market. They asked the children what would make a good guide book. Bright colours and things to do (rather than to see) came the answers. And - most importantly - the books should be funny. Unlocked has gone one step further. They have a kids official board of directors, all younger than 12, all highly opinionated and insightful. When Unlocked considered commissioning 'Dinosaurs Unlocked', the board batted away the idea with iron logic: 'You can't visit dinosaurs'.

Charles Astor gets crowd involvedSharky and George's talk could hardly have been a better advert for their services. It is hard to imagine two more fun and grounded guys to lead a children's party. They were brilliant showmen and echoed Emily's point: start with the children. 'We are well aware

that this isn't a children's party' said Charlie Astor, before blowing a cloud of bubbles into the audience and challenging them to catch one on each finger. Later, an obliging lady was summoned up to fire a foot-propelled rocket into a helmeted Sharky's groin. Both activities were relished by a roomful of adults...'which illustrates a point...the youth of the mind is not defined by age'. So the pair don't try to be childish; they simply do what they enjoy and children join in; they're 'aiming for the older brother vibe'.

Their games are specifically 'about making a framework for [children] to use their imaginations', in contrast to computer games or television screens which supply a lot. So the idea is to 'feed' children the minimum. 'The more children invest in the game, the more they get out of it' says George. It's over to the children to make it work.

The speakers all dwelt on their business and working philosophies. They want to keep integrity despite the pressures of scaling. This is not unexpected given that all bar Joe are featured as heroes on the popular Escape the City website. The future for UnlockedGeorge Whitefield demonstrating an early prank Guides is to keep on asking the children, and keep on creating high-quality publications with top contributors. They are created with an eye to detail. For example, all the fun facts have been carefully written with the exciting, attention-grabbing part at the start. Emily's working arrangement has helped her remained focused on the product. She and her business partner spend 50% of their time on the business, and 50% doing other jobs. So they are able to keep cool heads when the long lead times in publishing mean there is little money coming in. Sharky and George are aiming to expand their brand in line with their philosophy. By their estimates, the company has entertained over 125,000 children over the last five years, so they are putting all of their tales into a book documenting the games. Many of those games they got from children, while a front-runner for the title of the book was given to them by a child: 'Books are Boring (apart from this one by Sharky & George)'.

Meanwhile, Joe Craig could have churned out many more books, but hasn't. In each of his books he has strived to correct the faults of the last one, which explains their huge following.

Joe was a confident and focused speaker, and his delivery had touches of accomplished stand-up comedy. He told his story. 'I am a very impatient reader. I have a short attention span [...] In my teens', he recollected 'I really stopped reading novels. I read a lot of non-fiction...sports books – by which I mean lists of cricket statistics [...] But I stopped reading fiction. And I thought that made me a non-reader.'

Joe began his professional life as a musician and it was only when he began writing 'as an academic exercise […] to see if I could write a story that would grab me, to see if I could come up with the formula for a perfect story', that Jimmy Coates was born. The rip-roaring formula he came up with had two parts.

Firstly, Joe emphasises structure and conflict over character and setting. Many writers prioritise the latter two and lose the attention of an impatient reader like Joe ('and all readers under 14 are like me'). Emphasising structure and conflict is more immediately engaging. Joe also teaches this when taking writing workshops for children.

Joe Craig spinning yarns

'Children are taught to write with character first. They are told to write down a bunch of habits and facts about a person. But that is hard work and ninety five percent of it won't make it into the story. Or you'll feel obliged to put it in because you've done all of the hard work.' Better to begin with the conflict - with the problem - and see how the character reacts to it. That way you get to know the character better too, by contemplating their response.

An intricate shaggy dog story illustrated Joe's second maxim. At the tale's incredible denouement, Joe was given seminal advice by one of the only authors he had read as a child. The old man was on death's row and could only write the words: 'Tell a story'.

Joe says his stories and their formula are written for himself and wonders what makes them for children (Anthony Horowitz, for example, writes with his teenage son in mind). Philosophical thoughts underpin much of what he writes and says. The twelve year old Jimmy Coates is pre-programmed to become a government assassin. But he doesn't. He fights his pre-determination. Readers of Jimmy Coates get an exciting introduction to the dilemna of free will.

Children should learn to tell stories, says Craig, because of their explanatory power (that Cambridge philosophy degree rears its head again). A single event, such as the economic crisis, does not have one single sufficient cause but many interwoven ones. To give a thorough explanation of the crash you need to bring in property bubbles, ratings agencies, banks, legislation and market speculation. Yet at secondary school children are disencouraged from telling complex stories and goaded towards singular, convergent answers – away from using their imagination. An event is the cause of another event depending on how it is described. So (quite literally), if children want to make head or tail of things, they should learn to tell a story.

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