Llinos Dafydd
Carys Haf Glyn did not set out to write herself into her latest children’s book.
But once Sam’s Silent Disco was finished, the resemblance was hard to miss.
“I didn’t realise until after I’d written it, but it’s definitely a bit of an autobiography, apart from the obvious fact that I’m not a squirrel!” she said.
Like Sam, Carys loves music, movement and dancing.
Her taste ranges from pop and rap to classical music and jazz, and she admits that if a song comes on while she is out shopping, standing still is not really an option.
“If I hear music, I just have to move to the beat,” she said.
“It happens everywhere. Sometimes I’ll be in a shop and a song comes on and I’ll start dancing. Not everyone appreciates singing and dancing quite as much as I do, so I do get some funny looks.”
A book that moves
That energy runs through Sam’s Silent Disco, the latest picture book from the Abergavenny author and teacher.
Illustrated by Paul Nicholls, the story follows a squirrel who loves to dance, but whose woodland friends are not quite as enthusiastic about the noise.
The result is a story full of movement, rhythm and sound, with Sam leaping, prancing and dancing across the pages.
For Carys, the physicality of the story matters just as much as the words.
She wanted young readers to be able to join in, repeat sounds and move along with the book rather than simply sit and listen.
“I wanted children to really interact with the book,” she said.
“I wanted it to be something alive for them, something that almost jumped off the page.”
She said she was struck by a recent description of picture books as “little poems”.
“The ability to perform the story, repeat it and have sounds that stay in the ear is really important,” she said.
The most honest audience
That performance element comes naturally to Carys.
Her school workshops already include rapping, dancing and drawing, all with the aim of getting children excited about stories and the natural world.
And for a teacher who works directly with young readers, there is nowhere to hide when a story is not working.
“I’m always nervous sharing a story with children for the first time because they’re always honest,” she said.
Fortunately, Sam’s Silent Disco passed the test.
Carys has shared it with her own class and through workshops, where children have danced like Sam, copied the sounds of the forest and created woodland music of their own.
That energy will continue during half-term, when Carys leads three free bilingual workshops at Plas Newydd, Anglesey, on Monday 26 October. The sessions, at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 2.30pm, will include dancing, rapping and activities inspired by Sam’s Silent Disco / Disgo Distaw Wil.
“They especially love moving like Sam,” she said.
The book also reflects another constant in Carys’s work: nature.
Looking and listening
Her earlier books include the Criw’r Coed series, and she says living among mountains, rivers and woodland continues to shape the stories she writes.
“There’s something genuinely amazing about nature that’s there for everyone to see,” she said.
“Trees changing colour, a spider making a web, dew on the grass, leaves rustling in the woods, the colours of a sunset. These are incredible things and they’re free.”
That sense of wonder is at the heart of Sam’s Silent Disco, even if Carys is clear that she does not want the book to feel like a lesson.
“I always want young readers to smile and enjoy reading my books,” she said.
“I want them to think of reading and think of enjoyment. Anything else they get from the book is a bonus.”
Still, she hopes the story might encourage children to pay closer attention to the world around them.
“I hope children stop and really wonder at the natural world around them,” she said.
“To listen, not just hear, and to look, not just see.”
That fascination with sound now runs into another strand of Carys’s work.
She has written the welcome poem Clywch for the 2027 Urdd Eisteddfod Fro’r Wenynen, again exploring how sound can shape emotions, memories and identity.
So while Sam may be a squirrel, the rhythms at the heart of the story are very much Carys’s own.
Sam’s Silent Disco is written by Carys Haf Glyn and illustrated by Paul Nicholls. The Welsh-language edition, Disgo Distaw Wil, is published by Rily.
The post ‘It’s almost an autobiography, except I’m not a squirrel’ appeared first on Nation.Cymru.