Thunderhead by Sophie Beer
Author Interview at PaperbarkWords
“I know that what I’m going through right now is the rather unfortunate end result of a few troublesome cells. It isn’t the universe conspiring against me. It’s just bad luck, a random event in a meaningless mess.
But I read somewhere that humans are programmed to look for patterns and symmetry in everything, even when there aren’t any.
And this all feels a bit too on the nose to be random.
Mainly that:
I live for music.
And the tumours will make me deaf. DEAF DEAF”
(Thunderhead)
Thunderhead is published by Allen & Unwin.
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Thank you for speaking to ‘Joy in Books’ at PaperbarkWords, Sophie.
Thunderhead is one of the best and most popular Australian books for young people published this year and, despite Thunderhead’s problems, the story becomes an explosion of joy.
The book is likened to R.J. Palacio’s contemporary classic Wonder, as well as Karen Foxlee’s Lenny’s Book of Everything. How do you think it is similar to either of these books?
The Wonder comparison did not even occur to me (especially given how inadvertently similar the front covers are!) until the book was published as an ARC and the wonderful Danielle Binks made the comparison! Each book takes an ostensibly ‘sad’ premise (facial differences, hearing loss and brain tumours) and inverts it into something joyful. In the case of Wonder, that was a plea to be kind. In the case of Thunderhead, it’s the appreciation of the everyday and the people who uplift you. Also mixing humour into a dark situation!
I adored Lenny’s Book of Everything and can only hope that the comparisons are due to lyrical prose accompanied with a medical storyline, but Karen’s prose is certainly a lot more lyrical than mine!
How have you metamorphosed some of your own experience into such an engaging, powerful and poignant book? How do you recommend people better communicate with those who have hearing loss? What advice or comfort can you offer?
The circumstances of the book’s birth are filled with a lot of synchronicity. I underwent brain surgery (which my hearing loss is a symptom of) at the same hospital at which my aunt and father had both died of brain-related causes. I got diagnosed with the tumour only two weeks before marrying my brain doctor husband. And when I was about to finish the final draft of Thunderhead, I was contacted by a genetic counselor and tested for the exact same genetic condition Thunderhead has. The whole thing was rather creepy! The reason I wanted to write the book was to aid representation for hard of hearing or d/Deaf kids in the Australian children’s literature community. To turn this whole, weird, creepy, funny experience into something that could help someone else.
“USUAL CONVERSATION WHEN YOU CANNOT HEAR WELL …
Person one: I’m so excited ! It’ll be awesome!
Person two: Yes! Same!
When exactly will be blargh the farnu?
Person one: I thought you already funaru alotmed dappler ood?
Person two: No, we always snood the darbled inpy!
Thunderhead is a dynamic title. What does it mean?
It’s the protagonist’s username (you find out their real name at the very end), which they initially chose as a misheard Kate Bush lyric. A thunderhead itself is a storm cloud: it portents rain and is usually dark and menacing with a bulbous top filled with rain. This is a sort of metaphor for bad things coming in the future, an uncertainty of life that Thunderhead struggles with. It’s also a nod to the fact that they have tumours in their brain, like ticking time bombs about to explode, literally THUNDERHEAD! And also the fact that they struggle with anxiety; a head full of thunder.
Thunderhead’s voice is such a highlight. It’s so distinctive and immediate. Could you describe it in 3 words?
Sardonic, exuberant, funny (hopefully!).
Thunderhead is twelve, turning thirteen and about to start Year Eight. What is so difficult about Year Eight?
Year Eight is a weird time. You’re no longer the baby grade of high school, but you’re also not a senior kid. You’re coming into being a teenager but you also are so small still! 12-14 years old is when I really started to figure out who I was, what I liked, who I wanted to spend time with, and that discovery of identity is such a formative, integral part of a kid’s development.
What is so impressive about Shannon Chen and Evie?
Oh gosh, I love them both so much. I wish I could be their friend! They are the ideal friends I wish each misfit teen could find: they don’t care if they’re cool, they are so passionate about what they love and don’t care who knows it, they are friendly and inclusive but also don’t take any guff. Each very important lessons Thunderhead, who is a bit of a judgemental jerk when we first meet them, has to learn.
Why would some young people regard playing clarinet in orchestra as embarrassing? Could you make a brief case disputing that it’s uncool?
Being super passionate about anything when you’re a too-cool teen is embarrassing. It’s studied disaffection or nothing!! I’m always so agog with wonder at people who can play instruments (being musically devoid myself!) so I think Thunderhead’s orchestra passion is the coolest thing ever, but they have to figure that out for themselves and learn to not care about how other people (ie. cool kids) see them.
Thunderhead’s playlists are so interesting and integral to the story. All readers are probably seeking out the songs. Which is your favourite playlist, and why?
Probably the playlist which features just before a central friendship in the book reaches its breaking point. Each of the songs on that playlist are either epic break up songs or empowerment songs, and I hope a kid going through something similar might find some solace in them.
Despite the weighty issues, the book is really funny. How would you describe the type of humour?
As a kid, I really enjoyed reading books where the protagonist luxuriated in language and played around with it, so I hope that came through a bit. I love puns and witticisms, the book is chockful of that!
You are well known and acclaimed for illustrating picture books and your black and white drawings throughout Thunderhead add a lot to its appeal and humour. Could you please select one illustration in the book that you are particularly pleased with and briefly explain why?
I was super happy with the illustration of this photo that Thunderhead takes of a storm outside their flat. It’s very Queensland-in-summer. I lived for nearly two years in the town on the Sunshine Coast in which I set Thunderhead and referred to all of my old photos from that time to get drawings of the houses and landscape correct.
Thunderhead has something of an epiphany at the beach.
“Looking out at the horizon, I was stolen over with the most extraordinary feeling. A feeling like CHURCH. A feeling like HOLINESS. And I suddenly felt like I had to try to explain myself to Shannon and Evie. To bridge the gaps between us.”
And Thunderhead experiences this again when their favourite band, Bin Night, plays.
How can this this experience of ‘holiness’ be reached or how can ‘holiness’ be a catalyst for change?
This was just me straight up stealing from LM Montgomery! She’s my favourite author and her descriptions of nature are the closest thing to gospel for me. I hate to think of hardships in life as teaching life lessons – it seems so insincere and righteous to frame bad things like that – but I like to think my tumour adventure taught me to appreciate the magic in the everyday. To stop and appreciate the view of a beach or the crescendo in your favourite song. Because, really, that’s what life amounts to: small pleasures strung together, ‘following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string’, as LM Montgomery said.
What are you working on now or next?
In brainstorming phase for my next middle grade! I’ve got a few exciting picture books out next year too!
What have you enjoyed reading recently?
I obviously adored Danielle Binks’ Six Summers of Tash and Leopold. Danielle was my in-conversation partner for the Melbourne launch of Thunderhead, and her writing is just exquisite.
How should people contact you?
I’m mostly on Instagram and BlueSky nowadays!
| Sophie Beer (@sophiebeerdraws) • Instagram photos and videos 14K Followers, 1,817 Following, 1,562 Posts – Sophie Beer (@sophiebeerdraws) on Instagram: ” ️ Kids author and illustrator ♥️ Books, nature, equality Meanjin, Aus ⛈️ Thunderhead out now! Rep’d by @annabelbarkeragency + @jackywinter” instagram.com |
My interview with Katrina Lehman & Sophie Beer about Izzy and Frank at PaperbarkWords blog
My interview with Asphyxia about Future Girl, a Deaf YA character, at PaperbarkWords blog
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