Still as sharp as a tack at 92, writer P.K. Page has given the word prolific new meaning.

Page recently teamed with illustrator Kristi Bridgeman on a children’s book, There Once Was a Camel. It was her third release of 2008, following a book of poems titled The Essential P.K. Page selected by Arlene Lampert and Thea Gray, and another children’s book, Jake, the Baker, Makes a Cake.

The latest effort saw Page connect with Bridgeman through Page’s niece, after which the decorated author “fell in love with her work.”

Bridgeman has 10 other books under her belt as an illustrator, four of them ESL children’s books for Oxford University Press.

Also the vice-president of the Island Illustrators Society, she considered it an honour to work with Page on There Once Was a Camel, which will be formally launched in Victoria on Dec. 7 at Winchester Galleries.

“I asked for interpretations, but P.K. said ‘No, just do your thing, do what you enjoy, do what you do best,’” said Bridgeman. “I forget exactly how she worded it, but she wanted me to have that freedom.”

The children’s book follows a camel accordingly dressed in enamel, a zebra, a leopard and a giraffe in typical children’s rhyming prose style – all with life lessons embedded.

“I think it’s sort of an aspirational nonsense story,” said Page. “Not in your face at all, the aspirational part I don’t think is in your face, but it’s there.

“It’s about dealing with the problems of life, and you could say, a leopard cannot change his spots or a zebra cannot change his stripes. You have to be who you are.”

Page has previously written six books for children, aside from her extended resume of poetry, memoir and fiction which span over five decades. She won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1957 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1999, underlining the longevity of her writing career.

The idea for her latest book came to her one day out of the blue.

“I was sitting in the hospital one day waiting for some tests and it came through my head, this idea of a camel all dressed in enamel,” she said. “And it amused me to keep myself quiet in my head while I waited, and so I went on with the verse in my head. And it amused me so much I’d hoped that I’d remember it by the time that I got home, because I didn’t have a pencil. And then I got home and I did remember it. And so I went on with it.”

The professional relationship between Page and Bridgeman is so fluid, the two are already planning work on another children’s book. Page published a fairytale called *A Flask of Seawater* in the late 80’s through Oxford and is working on a trilogy that would contain the two sequels *The Goat that Flew* and *The Sky Tree* with Bridgeman as potential illustrator. Oolichan Books is currently on board as publisher.

“I find Kristi is different in that way,” said Page of the artistic conversation she and Bridgeman had during the creative process. “Mostly (illustrators) want to do their own thing and not pay any attention even to the text on a few occasions. And that drives me bonkers, but if they pay attention to the text I’m happy to have an artist as free as I am myself when I write.”

Page said her love for fairy tales dates back to her upbringing in both England and the Canadian Prairies.

“I’ve always loved them and I’ve always thought they’ve had much more meaning than frivolous stuff. And somehow I wanted to pay back my parents who read them to me.”

Bridgeman, who regularly takes finished drawings to her kids for direct feedback from her projected demographic of readers, said she enjoyed the way Page approached their relationship.

“In this case I needed to know if I was doing something off base, but she really wanted me to have full freedom,” she said.

The launch party for *There Once Was a Camel* goes this Sunday from 2 to 2:30 p.m. at Winchester Galleries, 1010 Broad St. For more information call 250-361-9941.

patrickb@vicnews.com