What's your favourite thing about each character in your shortlisted book?
Gina Kaminski is bold and inquisitive. My favourite thing about her is how she challenges, in her own way, what she sees as unacceptable. I had always wanted to write an exciting, thundering picturebook adventure with a main character who was also autistic. I wrote many story drafts, but it just wasn’t clicking. Then one day I started writing in a completely different voice — something more direct and honest — and Gina immediately sprang to life on the page. She appeared fully formed and I could have written thousands of words in her voice. My first draft was much too long as I was revelling in this sparky, joyous character. I just love her absolute sincerity. It was a profound moment for me, as a writer, to sit back from the laptop, and look at this character on the screen and think: this is my hero. She is everything I wanted her to be.
Lady Wiggles is a loyal friend. Plus she is adorable, right? Fun fact: Lady Wiggles was a quick first draft placeholder name. Somehow, after so much time and so many drafts: the name remained.
Anya is the quiet hero: decisive and sensitive. That’s my favourite thing about her. I desperately wanted to shine a well-deserved spotlight on the teaching staff who make school-life safe, achievable and rewarding - the professionals whose work can be unsung and undervalued. A skilled one-to-one is a lifeline for many children, and hey help extremely worried parents and guardians sleep at night.
The Wolf gets saved and that’s only correct. My favourite thing about him is that in my head he speaks in Alan Rickman’s voice. It’s the only impression I can do with any degree of accuracy.
I adore The Woodcutter’s ridiculous pomposity. I could monologue in his voice forever. Francis Martin utterly captured his essence in his illustrations.
Which picture book would you give as a gift to your main character, and why?
Were the book real, I would love to gift Gina Kaminski her very own copy of The Big Book of Wolves. She adored this book! I would, however, be confident that she would similarly love I Wonder Where I Am? Written and illustrated by Shinuske Yoshitake, this book is an absolute wonder. It is a book about maps, in their myriad forms, but at its heart is a book about making sense of the chaos that the road, and everyday life, can bring. Simon’s mum gives him a map to guide him to the shops. Unfortunately he gets confused by the instructions. Luckily, Mrs Gray is on hand to make some key adjustments. Now everything makes sense! He is enchanted by the power of a good map, so sets off on a voyage of map-based discovery. He encounters, with boundless curiosity, maps of his room, the shopping mall, the solar system, the earth, watches… everything. Maps are a way to display and impart all kinds of meaning. His journey then winds into the abstract. Can we map time, or our wants and needs. This book would hugely appeal to Gina. It’s an interrogation of life’s more infuriating unknowables. It seeks to create a sense of order. It asks big questions. The illustrations make huge ideas feels simple, and logical. There is wit in the micro details. Above all it is charming, clever and sincere (even if Simon is a bit cheeky to his mum). Inventive, creative non-fiction like this is thrilling. It has a freewheeling sense of adventure but is still anchored in a quest for organisation, and order. For all of the above, I would love Gina to have this book in her backpack at all times. I am sure she could make some wonderful maps of her own.
