The story behind Beyond the Stars

Beyond the Stars is unique. It's a collection of 12 short stories for children, written by some of the most acclaimed Irish children's writers – current children's laureate, Eoin Colfer, former laureates Niamh Sharkey and Siobhán Parkinson, John Boyne, Derek Landy, Roddy Doyle and many more. Each story is illustrated by an equally feted line-up of illustrators, PJ Lynch and Chris Judge included.

Why did all these talented individuals give their time and expertise to create this book? That’s easy. They all support the work of Fighting Words, the creative writing centre for children which was set up by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love in the heart of Dublin city. More than anyone, children’s writers and illustrators understand how important it is to nourish and encourage children’s creativity.

Fighting Words runs daily writing sessions for both primary and secondary students. With the help of a team of volunteers (there are more than 400 on the books), the children and teenagers create their own stories or scenes in an informal, fun atmosphere.

Roddy Doyle says of Fighting Words: “It’s a big bright room. In an area that needs a big bright room. In a climate that needs a big bright room.”

My own involvement with this book goes back to January 2009 when I volunteered at Fighting Words’ very first primary school workshop. The children from Griffeen Valley Educate Together School in Lucan, with the help of a storyteller, an illustrator and a team of volunteers, wrote their own story.

On the back of each book (every young writer was given their own full colour copy to take home – complete with illustrations) was a photograph of the child and a blank box for them to add their very own writer’s biography.

Leaving the centre, their faces shone with happiness and pride. Their teacher, Liz Morris, has never forgotten that day. She says: "My class was so engrossed that they never even noticed the writing area at the far end of the room, where men were lifting in and unwrapping desks and chairs right beside them. They were so engrossed they wouldn't have noticed a herd of elephants. Nothing would distract them from the story they – they – were creating."

Since that first workshop, I have volunteered at Fighting Words whenever I can, but I wanted to do more. I decided I'd compile a book of short stories for children (I'd edited two previous books for charity, both adult non-fiction – Mum's the Word and Travelling Light) to raise funds for the centre. To test the water, I contacted a handful of children's writers and illustrators and asked would they be interested in contributing to such a book. They all came back with a resounding yes. Beyond the Stars was born.

Once the authors’ and illustrators’ names were confirmed, my agent, Philippa Milnes-Smith of LAW, pitched the proposal to many different publishers. After an exciting few days, HarperCollins made the strongest bid and we accepted their offer.

The authors were each invited to write a short story with a wintry theme. As soon as they all delivered their work, I met with Ruth Alltimes, the book’s editor at HarperCollins in London, to match make each author with an illustrator. Ruth and I had each prepared a list of which artist might work best with each story, and to our collective delight we realised our pairings were almost identical.

Due to the far-flung nature of successful writer’s lives – as I write, Derek Landy is in Australia, Eoin Colfer in Sardinia, Chris Judge and Chris Haughton on tour in the UK – keeping in contact with the contributors, chasing their edits (yes, even the most successful writers benefit from a good editor) and artwork was tricky – “herding cats” was Chris Haughton’s suggestion. The book was made possible by two things: email and everyone’s unwavering support for the project; no matter how busy they were, they all did their utmost to deliver on time.

The most exciting part of the project for me was finally holding the “real” book in my hands, feeling the solid weight of the 350 pages, running my fingers over Chris Haughton’s moonlit cover, seeing the illustrations and stories set together for the first time. It made the 18 months of work behind the book seem worthwhile.

At the launch celebration of Beyond the Stars two weeks ago, Ruth Alltimes spoke about the success of Irish writers worldwide, namechecking Derek Landy, Oliver Jeffers, and a possible star of the future, Shane Hegarty (of this paper), all from her HarperCollins stable.

Although overall book sales in Ireland are slow, children's books are the one growth area. According to recent statistics in trade magazine, The Bookseller, the UK children's market is up 10 per cent this year (£187.9 million was spent on children's books in the first eight months). Figures for Irish children's book sales are harder to come by.

Children’s books now account for up to 25 per cent of overall book sales and Irish writers are in great demand internationally. Publishing in London is full of rising Irish stars, such as agents Polly Nolan (Greenhouse) and Sallyanne Sweeney (Mulcahy Associates), and David Maybury, recently made commissioning editor of Scholastic Children’s Books, UK.

Although it’s tough for bookshops at present, independents such as Dubray Books and the Gutter Bookshop are holding their own, working hard to ensure children and families have inspiring spaces to browse and shop in now and in the future. Many thought young readers would be the first to make the switch to reading e-books, but children (and their parents) have shown great devotion to physical books. In fact less than 8 per cent of children’s books are read electronically and Ivan O’Brien from O’Brien Press puts his children’s e-sales at a mere 4 per cent.

Laureate na nÓg Eoin Colfer puts it perfectly when he says: “Every 50 years something comes along and people say: ‘That’s the end of books’. We’ll have to adapt, but physical books will definitely endure . . . Books will never die.”

Sarah Webb compiled Beyond the Stars: Twelve Tales of Adventure, Magic and Wonder (HarperCollins, £12.99). sarahwebb.ie