This award-winning Australian children’s author discusses her new picture book, The Curiosities, and why she considers it so important to have diverse representation in fiction.

You’re known for your incredibly inspiring and heart-warming stories. Where does your inspiration come from?

Young people! As a teacher and integration aide, as well as a parent, I have always been surrounded by young people. Adults so often dismiss or underestimate young people, but their world views are often incredibly wise, original, and wonderfully imaginative—exactly what humankind needs to survive.

In the afterword to The Curiosities, you discuss your personal experience raising a child who has Tourette syndrome. Have they read the book, and what was their reaction to it?

Yes, they have, and to my delight, they love the story! Phil was keen to make his illustrations reflect my child’s experience, and so he added in particular Curiosities for my child. For example, the owl-like curiosities are based on my child’s hooting tic.

The idea for the Curiosities themselves also came from my child. When they were diagnosed, they often spoke of their tics as being separate from their body, and when representing tics, would often draw them as curious creatures—some big, some small—that could be very cute, but at other times were portrayed as frightening and overwhelming.

Given this strong personal connection, how did writing The Curiosities impact you?

It was very cathartic. Having Tourette’s can cause my child intense pain and distress, but it has also enabled my child to see and be in the world in wondrously varied ways. Accepting the difficulties that my child would face, while embracing and celebrating their difference is something that I was able to explore in the writing process.

I wrote the story very quickly after my child was first diagnosed. I was trying to capture poetically and creatively something of the way I imagined my child was experiencing their world, as well as a way to talk to my child, their siblings and classmates about that experience. I also wanted to reflect something of the way the world was responding to my child.

I very quickly came to realise, though, that the experiences were far more universal than I had first realised, and could equally be used as a starting point to talk about and celebrate all kinds of difference and diversity.

What techniques did you use when describing Miro’s sensory overload?

I remembered. There have been moments in my own life in which I have felt utterly overwhelmed; times where noise that would normally not worry me, suddenly became unbearable, causing my skin to crawl and I wanted to squirm away from my own body; times when all I wanted was for a giant hole to open up in the earth so I could climb inside and find some kind of peace. I imagine everyone has felt this way at some point, but perhaps not.

I also saw the way my child responded—and the way the children I worked with as an integration aide and teacher responded—to sensory or emotional overload, and I tried to express it the best way I could, which was really just by stating it simply.

Sometimes the simplest words are the most powerful. I could, however, also cheat a little and rely on Phil to show what I couldn’t!

How does your approach differ between writing picture books and chapter books?

The best thing about writing picture books is collaborating with an illustrator. I love seeing what comes when multiple creatives or artists get together. When I am creating a novel, I only have my own imagination to work from, but with a picture book, our imaginations collide and a world greater than either of us could come up with on our own is born.

I would love to find more ways to collaborate with people on larger projects, as it is really so exhilarating. When I am creating a picture book, I have to try and get across the images in my head through using only my words. But unlike in a novel where I am trying to create a complete picture, with a picture book, I am trying to do the opposite. I am trying to leave space for the illustrator to create their own images, and trying to make sure that the story only truly comes through when the pictures and words are brought together.

I want the pictures to show what the words can’t, and for the words to show what the pictures don’t.

What’s it like to see these worlds come to life in a picture book?

They were so far removed from what I had in my head! It was an absolutely glorious experience to first lay my eyes on them! The layers that Phil managed to add on to this story have elevated it beyond anything I could have possibly imagined on my own. I am a huge folklore fan, and so to see the folklore of the Phillipines interwoven with the story here is really very magical.

...I hope that readers are enabled to recognise the brilliance of diversity...

The appearance of the elder in The Curiosities has a huge influence on Miro. What do you hope that educators and carers will take away from this book?

That is such an interesting question, because to be honest, I hadn’t thought about the educators or carers at all in the creation of the elder! The elder was my way of showing the reader that there are people out there who understand. That you aren’t alone. As both an educator and a carer though, I think the elder lends herself beautifully to discussions of who our elders might be, who we feel connected to, and wider discussions of the differences that we all have, and how they might be recognised and celebrated.

How do you hope neurotypical and abled readers will engage with Miro’s experiences?

I hope that all readers can connect and engage with Miro’s experiences at some level. And I hope that readers are enabled to recognise the brilliance of diversity, recognise the differences that make us who we are, and acknowledge, embrace and celebrate those differences. I am a firm believer in the social disability model, which says that people are not disabled by their disability, but by the barriers in society—attitudinal, physical, environmental.

I hope that The Curiosities can encourage us all to recognise the snippets of wonder, the oddments, the possibles, and the curiosities that exist in all of our lives.