The Book Family Robinson

The Book Family Robinson takes its name and inspiration from The Swiss Family Robinson, a novel about a Swiss family that get shipwrecked on an island, written by Swiss author Johann David Wyss and first published in 1812. Although TV and film adaptations have named the family “Robinson” the family’s surname is not given in the novel – the “Robinson” in the title is a reference to Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe’s adventure story about a shipwrecked sailor, which inspired Wyss’s book.

I got to know the story as a child through some of its many TV adaptations including the late sixties science fiction version Lost in Space (recently remade by Netflix) in which a Robinson family struggle to survive in the depths of space. So this is a story that has been retold and adapted many times.

I didn’t set out to write a story inspired by Wyss’ novel. I’m a big fan of Allan Ahlberg’s Happy Families books, many of which feature families who share an interest or characteristic, and wanted to write a similar story about a family that loved books. However, once I’d come up with the title The Book Family Robinson, it made sense to give my story a similar plot and have the characters shipwrecked on a remote island.

In my version of the story, the Robinsons are able to survive thanks to the knowledge stored in the huge book collection, which is also washed up on the island. Many of the books the family are seen reading allow them to solve important problems, like how to build shelter or which fruit are safe to eat, but it’s a running joke that the only book the youngest Robinson, baby Charlie, is interested in reading is a seemingly silly board book called Funny Monkey Goes to the Toilet. I thought it would provide a good twist at the end of the story if this was the only book that was capable of saving the family’s lives when they face seeming certain death at the hands of a crew of angry pirates.

Illustrator Sam Caldwell has done a terrific job of bringing the Robinson’s book-crammed world to life. His illustrations of the Robinsons and the pirates have heaps of character – I particularly like the way he’s made Mr Robinson look like a young Louis Theroux. One of my favourite spreads is the one shown above, where the family and their book collection is caught up in the terrible storm that wrecks their ship. Another favourite is the cross section near the end of the story (shown below). A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about my love of cross sections and cutaway drawings and I’m always looking for opportunities to sneak them in to my picture books. There are so many quirky details to spot in Sam’s cross section of the floating library. Can you spot all three of the ship’s cats or the pirate sitting on the toilet – and where has baby Charlie got to?