The Queen Who Banished BIRDS (Book 2) looks like a
great addition to the series. How many
books do you have planned?
I have the third in the series scheduled for release in the
next month or so, just in time for planting natives and hosting pollinators.
The first book, The Queen Who Banished Bugs, is about a queen who
realizes bugs are responsible for pollinating all the foods she loves most, and
she is not happy without coffee or chocolate! The second book, The Queen Who
Accidentally Banished BIRDS, is about a queen who finally understands
insects are important to wildlife, and the third book, Call Me Arthropod,
will explain the coolness of the insect….
How did you come up with the story in The Queen Who
Banished BIRDS?
I am so concerned with the state of our planet, and its
future. Our wildlife is disappearing and trophic cascade is so scary – if we
lose enough in a species, everything gets terribly out of whack. We NEED our
wildlife for lots of reasons, and every animal class is important. Without
humans, Earth would rock along just fine. But without insects, for example, it
would not. Our food supply would become scarce, nothing would decompose, we’d
lose our birds … I wanted to illustrate how important it is for us to be good
stewards of our wildlife in an educational and fun way, without being as
preachy and over-the-top as I sound in this interview. So I hoped a funny
rhyming series would get the message across to the youngest stewards of our
planet.
What age group is the book for?
Children from age 3-8, roughly. And anyone reading aloud to
them!
What inspired you when writing the series?
Doug Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home inspired me
to write this series. It changed the way I view the outdoors, actually. Instead
of looking at a tree or a bush or a flower and thinking out exotic or beautiful
it is, I consider how useful it is to wildlife. If its leaves or bark or
blossom are nibbled and bored and chewed, I think, “That’s a useful plant!” And
useful equals good! I wanted to share his important message with little ones,
and with anyone reading to them.
My mother, artist Mary Ferris Kelly, agreed to come out of
“retirement” and sketch a few drawings for the first book. She used to always mail
me funny self-portraits of my father and herself when I was away at camp, and I
wanted her to capture that same edgy, hilarious cartoon style for the book. And
she did! It was so much fun working together. She is very accomplished, with
works in private collections all over the world, as well as the Hunter Museum
in Chattanooga and the Whitney. But she’s also a killer children’s book
illustrator, as well! Who knew?
When did you decide to become a writer?
I’ve always loved expressing my ideas on paper – it’s much
easier than speaking for me! And I love to describe things. I’ve written a
novel and published a few collections of essays and two cookbooks, but I only
recently started on children’s books. They are definitely the most fun!
When writing The Queen Who Banished BIRDS did
anything stand out as particularly challenging?
It was hard to make the rhyme work for every line. Each line
needed to make sense, be funny and have the exact right number of beats! I
tried to tell the story in paragraphs, but it kept sounding better as a rhyme –
or at least sounding like it could sound better as a rhyme. And it was
challenging to state the facts of a dire situation – we need to revere our
wildlife or we are in big trouble – without terrifying children at bedtime.
Hopefully little readers/listeners will grow up knowing how to make their yards
welcoming to wildlife, and will delight in all the little creatures busily and
productively buzzing around outside.
What do you like to do when not writing?
When I’m not at work at the Mountain Mirror, a great
community newspaper, I love to putter about in the yard, propagating plants or
trying to anyway. And I’m trying to get rid of a bunch of invasives in the
woods behind my house and replace them with native plants. And I love hiking
the trails near my house with my little dog.
Where can readers find out more about your work?
My website, www.ferrisrobinson.com,
has links to my books, as well as a link for a free pollinator poster that
explains how to welcome important pollinators to your corner of the world. My
books are on Amazon, and The Queen Who Accidentally Banished BIRDS is
available everywhere (almost) that ebooks are sold, with print versions coming
soon!