Canadian children’s book author Melanie Watt was at Wild Rumpus recently, reading from her Scaredy Squirrel series and drawing to the delight of her young audience, which included my Zoe. Here’s a Q&A with Cribsheet.

Where’d you get the idea for Scaredy Squirrel?
I wanted to write about a book about facing our fear of the unknown. A squirrel felt like a good character to embody this because they are fearful and alert creatures. I needed an animal with a special hidden talent that he could only discover by jumping into the unknown and so, a squirrel who is actually a flying squirrel was for me a great jump start to my story.

The nut tree is a nice metaphor for a home, shelter, food and safety, all of these factors and observing our society and how we are bombarded with warnings all around us, all inspired me to write Scaredy Squirrel.

Is there a little bit of Scaredy Squirrel in you?
Absolutely, I grew up in a sometimes overly cautious environment and as I got older I found myself questioning things and finding excuses for not venturing into unknown situations. I think fear is universal weather you are a young child or an adult. Everyone at one point has found themselves in a situation of fear and have had to gather up strength to face them.

Do you have any kids?
I don’t have kids. But I have a good recollection of what it was like to be a kid. I remember situations really clearly and how I felt. I love to get feedback from the kids and people who have read my stories, I’m interested in knowing what aspects of the books they appreciate most and how they relate to my characters. But when I sit
down and write, its very important to me to be working on something that I find interesting. I need to be inspired about what I write and draw to be able to invest all my creative energy.

What’s the next book in the works?
I have just finished a sequel to Chester called: Chester’s Back! And I am working on a fourth Scaredy Squirrel adventure that will focus on the night time fears.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.