Looking for some last minute bookweek costume inspiration?
Go as cute as a button Francie from Like a Gannet!
Like a Gannet - Storytime
Such fun doing a storytime at @wherethewildthingsare_bookshop yesterday
Thanks for having me @gen_kenobi and Jess and for making it such an easy and enjoyable experience.
Thanks to all the kids who came along and were so interested in Francie’s first time off the diving board and in gannets.
Thanks to the parents and grandparents who brought them along and to all parents and grandparents everywhere who take kids to bookshop and library storytimes - you are helping instill a love of literature, reading and books in your little people that will last a lifetime.
Like a Gannet - Gift Guide
Happy end of year festivities to all my friends on socials!
Thanks for all your support this year and extra thanks for the end of year love for Like a Gannet - especially @collins_booksellers @kinokuniya_sydney and @farrells_bookshop @farrells_bookshop_kids for featuring it as a Christmas pick 💛
Hopefully it helps it get into more little hands 🤗
🐦 Anyone still looking for a last minute gift it’s a perfect book for 3-7 year olds who:
• love swimming and summer days at the pool
• want to do what the big kids are doing
• may lack confidence to try something new or like to face challenges in their own way
• are starting school next year - it explores all the feels of a new experience
Three Books About Levelling Up In The Water
Camping at Yamba last weekend I went to see Moana 2. It was fun but two things I especially loved.
1. Maui’s song - Can I Get A Chee Hoo? Such a great motivational concept of levelling up. Reminded me of a video game, was super catchy and fun and I think kids will really get it.
It got me thinking about how when you are a kid you are levelling up all the time. Aussie kids especially need to keep levelling up around water. It’s a big part of our way of life so being confident around water is super important for safety. And it can also be heaps of fun. But for some kids pushing out of their comfort zone is scary. I was one of those kids.
So, with the first warm weather of summer leading up to the holidays I wanted to share three picture books that show the joy, courage and satisfaction that comes with doing something hard or scary in the water for the first time. Any one of them would make a wonderful gift.
🌊 Over or Under by @piphaz and @hilaryjeantapper (Lothian Children’s, 2024)
Over and Under is a new picture book that looks at learning to swim in the waves. In big surf every wave has you asking yourself – over or under? - and Maisy is learning this for the very first time.
☀️ Jetty Jumping by @andrearowe_coastwriter and @hannahmsommerville (Little hare, 2021)
Award winning Jetty Jumping looks at summer fun down at the jetty. Milla watches her friends jump off the jetty into the cool refreshing water but it’s a long way down and she is scared to try.
💦 Like a Gannet by @kirstenealand and @debi_hudson (Windy Hollow, 2024)
Like A Gannet is mine so I won’t go on about it. But it explores going off the diving board at the local pool for the first time and all the emotions little Francie goes through.
All three books have a retro feel that reminds me of long-ago summer days in the water with friends, carefree and full of freedom taking small safe risks by trying new things, but with parents or older kids nearby if you needed them.
Which reminds me of the second thing I especially loved...
2. The Yamba Cinema – all the retro 80’s childhood beach feels right there – no mall in sight with kids lined all the way up the street.
Happy reading! Happy swimming! Happy days!
Like a Gannet - Boardwalk Books Storytime and Craft
A fun morning doing storytime and craft at my awesome local indie @boardwalkbooks 💛📚
Yay, some kids came 😅🤗
I learnt something about gannets from one of the mums who was a keen scuba diver:
Every winter off the east coast of South Africa, divers flock to the Sardine Run, where thousands of migrating sardines attract large numbers of apex predators like sharks, dolphins and whales. Large numbers of cape gannets also follow the run. The mum told me that each year, more divers are hurt by diving gannets than sharks or any other predators. Apparently, these large sea birds hurtling straight down at speeds of up to 100km/h can pierce scuba tanks with their beaks. If like me you’d never heard of the Sardine Run you should check it out - some spectacular photos online
🐟🐠🐬🦈🐋
Like a Gannet - Book Launch
🥳 Like a Gannet Launch 🥳
Thank you to everyone who came along to Murwillumbah Library yesterday to help @debi_hudson and I launch our new picture book Like a Gannet! 🥰 🙏
It was so wonderful to have a packed house of family, friends, colleagues and kidlit crew @writelinks celebrating with us 🥳 Thank you for your amazing support 🙏
It was so lovely to meet Deb for the first time 🤗🎨 Thanks for coming all the way from Melbourne and bringing Mike - what fun we had 💛
Thanks @zewlanmoor for being our perfect MC 😘
Thanks to Kym and everyone at @richmondtweedregionallibrary Murwillumbah branch for sharing your beautiful space and making us feel so welcome 🙏
Thanks for selling books for us @boardwalkbooks - and yay we sold out!!! 🥳
Loved seeing all the children who came along to enjoy the story, craft and cupcakes 📚✂️🧁 I loved reading Like a Gannet to you for the very first time! 💛
💦 Urrah! I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect debut launch!!!
Like a Gannet - The Extended Metaphor
Thanks to Joy Lawn for the opportunity to write a guest post about Like a Gannet for her blog Paperbark Words.
In a previous interview, someone had asked me about my favourite part of Like a Gannet. On reflection, I realised it was the extended gannet metaphor that I loved most and had most enjoyed writing. So when Joy asked me to do a guest post I decided to explore this extended metaphor a bit more.
The gannet is such an important part of the story, representing how we can feel awkward or out of place in some areas of life, but find our flow and confidence in others. I love how the gannet’s transformation — clumsy on land but magnificent out at sea — mirrors Francie’s journey, and I love being able to share more about how this idea took shape. I have included a small excerpt from the blog here as well as a link to the full post down below.
I wanted to show this unbridled joy and exuberance in Francie, the main character, when she was doing what she loves – swimming at her local pool. Comparing her to different water birds, like a duck, swan and cormorant, was a way to show Francie’s wonderful imagination and just how confident she was feeling in the water.
So confident, that when she sees her cousins diving like gannets off the high diving board, she wants to do it too.
So, the idea of being like a gannet really came from Francie and I thought it could be an effective literary device to create an extended metaphor throughout the whole story. It could help create this idea of Francie wanting to be like a gannet for young readers, while also helping to create a point of difference for this first experience story.
…
When my publisher wanted an extra beat in the story I used this as an opportunity to strengthen the metaphor even more. I had Francie push ‘back through the squawking, jostling flock’ which was a great way to, not only show the crowd of children and how they were behaving, but also how Francie was feeling at this moment. And to learn a bit about gannet behaviour in the gannetry at the same time!
Then the line ‘Do gannets blush?’ again shows the reader how Francie is feeling. But I really love this line because the gannet has a rosy buff-yellow coloured head – almost like a blush.
The final line in the extended metaphor comes right at the end. To show Francie’s joy, I had written ‘Francie hooted.’ The sentiment was perfect, but it felt too owl-like. So I researched gannet calls, looking for something that was a better fit, and I found out that one of the noises a gannet makes is urrah. I was thrilled because urrah is so much like ‘hurrah’ and it expresses exactly how Francie is feeling at that moment! So no, it’s definitely not a typo. It’s the last hurrah of the extended metaphor in Like a Gannet!
Like a Gannet - The Quick Six Interview
I loved doing The Quick Six Interview with Romi Sharp for my debut Like a Gannet. I’ve always loved reading other authors’ answers and I’m super happy to have a turn. And a big thanks to Romi for all she does to promote Australian Kid Lit creatives – it’s such a wonderful support. I’ve included some of the interview here and the link to the full interview.
What is your favourite part of this book?
Ooh, hard question. I think my favourite part is the gannet metaphor that runs through the text. I love how Deb has cleverly brought the gannet into the illustrations by having a mural at the pool with diving gannets on it. Many people have never heard of a gannet, even though they have probably seen one diving for fish off the east coast of Australia. I love how the mural shows the gannet in the different stages of the dive, as it tucks its wings back and becomes almost like an arrow as it hits the water. There are old faded murals at many regional public pools, so I love how she has captured this.
When did you begin writing this book?
My first draft was written in January 2021. It went to acquisitions at Windy Hollow and I was offered a contract in October 2022.
Why is this book meaningful to you?
It’s inspired by my memories of being a child with a bigger body shape who wasn’t very sporty but who felt capable and graceful in the water. So I really wanted Francie to have a bigger body type too. It’s slowly getting better, but I still think there’s a lack of representation of diverse bodies in children’s books. I hope Francie shows kids that, with courage, they can face their fears and strive for things out of their reach, learning along the way to accept their limitations and do it their own way. Just like gannets whose short legs and webbed feet make them slow, clumsy waddlers on land, but who transform into Queens of the Sea when they dive.