Trying to explain comedy to a toddler at Babyzone Barnet

Each event is a learning experience – for Jason as much as it is for the young book enthusiasts who join him to hear him read his books.

He entertained families from northwest London at the Babyzone Barnet Health and Wellbeing, where he joined representatives of local organisations including children’s services and healthcare providers.

During breaks between lessons and presentations, families joined Jason on the reading mat to hear renditions of his children’s picture books, What Can You See?, I Like To Put Food In My Welly and A Zoo In My Shoe.

The audience mostly comprised pre-schoolers, with the babies enjoying the simple rhymes of What Can You See? while the toddlers had fun with I Like To Put Food In My Welly and A Zoo In My Shoe, laughing at the increasingly surreal situations portrayed by Max Low’s bold illustrations.

One of the younger children was bright enough to understand what was happening in the scenarios being presented in the latter books, but not old enough to understand why it was funny.

“Why is he swimming in a cup?” she asked, during I Like To Put Food In My Welly.

And in A Zoo In My Shoe, she wondered “Why are the fleas wearing hats?”

“In 2 years since it was published, I’d never even noticed that detail,” Jason laughed. “I love that after all this time, I’m still learning new things about my own books – whether it’s the details of the illustrations or the way children might interact with them.”

Jason ended up expanding the usual reading of the books to take in lessons on comedy writing for 3 and 4 years olds, explaining why odd scenarios, such as swimming in a tree, boating on a cake or enjoying the smell of your toes, are funny.

“My books help young book lovers decode the world around them,” learned Jason. “And they show me that I’ve still got a bit more decoding to do myself!”