Like a Gannet by Kirsten Ealand illustrated by Deb Hudson

Like a Gannet

by Kirsten Ealand illustrated by Deb Hudson

Published by Windy Hollow Books

Guest Author post about Like a Gannet by Kirsten Ealand for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog

My stories often start with an emotion – I think of a time when I felt like that, and I go from there. I really wanted to tap into joy for this story, so I thought of a time as a child when I had felt a no-rules kind of freedom and joy — and for me it was in the water. Even though as a child I wasn’t very athletic and couldn’t do handstands or cartwheels like lots of my friends, in the water I felt graceful and capable and I remember spending long summer hours in the pool pretending to be a dolphin or a mermaid.

So, 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.

Some examples of the gannet metaphor throughout include –

– When Francie is in line for her first ever dive, a little kid among all the big kids, she’s ‘a fledgling among gannets’.

– She ‘folds her wings’.

– She ‘kicks to the surface through her trail of tiny bubbles’ just like the bubble stream that gannets make in the water when they dive in.

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 behavior in the gannetry at the same time!

(This was a real added bonus for me!  Not only does the extended metaphor build a picture of Francie trying to be like a gannet, but the reader can also learn something about gannets – magnificent sea birds that very few people have ever heard of, despite being found here in Australia and around the world.)

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!

Because this story was inspired by my memories of being a child who wasn’t very sporty but who felt confident and free in the water, it was important to me that Francie had a bigger body type. It’s slowly getting better, but I think there’s still a lack of representation of diverse body types in children’s books. When I saw Deb Hudson’s initial character sketches of Francie they were gorgeous (how cute is she!), but I also wondered if Deb could make Francie chubbier. She was super responsive to this suggestion and I am so happy with how this little character has been brought to life by Deb’s illustrations.

I hope Like a Gannet helps all children feel like they can do anything and be anything, not just the thin, sporty ones. 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.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to write a guest post for Paperbark Words. I hope Like a Gannet dives into little hands and hearts everywhere. 

Kirsten Ealand Website

Like a Gannet at Windy Hollow Books

Like a Gannet