Zanni Louise has been writing stories since she was little, growing up in country NSW. She’s written over fifty internationally published books for kids including picture books, chapter books and books for 10–12 year-olds. Today we’re chatting to her about the latest books in her Handbooks for Little Humans series. You can see the two latest books in the series above – Fairness and Friendship – both illustrated by Maja Veselinovic.
From the publisher:
Phew. There’s a lot to know about being a human, right? You have so many things to learn, like: swimming in the big pool, spelling your name and the words and actions to your favourite song. This is a series to guide meaningful conversations about the things that count most.
Simon & Schuster provided reading copies of these books.
So far in this series you’ve written handbooks for Compassion, Confidence, Inclusion, Integrity, Fairness and Friendship. What brought you to write the Handbooks for Little Humans series?
I have been talking with kids in classrooms for years about important topics like honesty, integrity, creativity and persistence. I wanted to make fun, engaging guidebooks that built on these conversations and gave classrooms and families a structure, so that they could continue this dialogue with their little people. We have guidebooks for how to light a fire and use a vacuum cleaner. Why not a guidebook for how to be human?
The books include information, guidance and tips for readers. How did you gather your information? How do you decide what to put in … and what to leave out?
It’s a tricky finding the balance between enough information and making it concise and simple enough to be engaging. I think hard about the topic, like “What is integrity? To me?” I think of examples in my own life and how the topic impacts me. I research online. I talk with kids. I talk with teachers and librarians. For Inclusion, I spoke with a disability advocate. Once I form a clear idea about the topic, I experiment with the best way of articulating the theme so it appeals to kids.
The illustrators across the series – Maja Veselinovic, Kim Drane and Jingting Wang – have included brightly coloured illustrations, comics, diagrams and checklists. Did you meet with your illustrators to work on the books? When you send the text for the comics sections do you present it differently from the text of the main pages?
I’ve never met any of these illustrators. I send my text to my editors, then they brief the illustrator. I am sent ‘roughs’, which are sketches of the whole book. I give feedback on these. We go back and forth a couple of times. I want to give the illustrators plenty of freedom to play with the concepts as much as they’d like to. I want it to be fun for them and for the illustrations to have their personality. They’re the creative talent behind the visuals. For the comics, I lay out the text and give a few stage directions. I suggested the animals once or twice, but also said, “Feel free to pick your own.” It’s important that the illustrator feels ownership over the project.
How do you hope these Handbooks are read and used?
I hope they are conversation starters. I hope they plant a seed in kids’ minds, and give homes and classrooms accessible ways of talking about complicated themes. I hope they can lay a pathway for being kinder and better to one another, so we can create a more harmonious society. It sounds lofty, but I truly believe books have this power. I had many messages from readers of my earlier series, Human Kind, telling me how kids electively pulled the books from the shelves and read them in their own space and time. Later, they would chat about the topic with their parent, and reflect on how they were persistent, honest, etc.
Having spent lots of time with kids over the years, I’ve learnt never to underestimate their interest in and ability to talk about big topics. Nor should we every underestimate their capacity for humanness. Us adults could learn a lot!
Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on next?
A lot! This week, I am jumping between drafts of two novels (I have never done that before, but it’s fun, and it’s working, so I’m not going to complain!). I have several more books coming out later this year that I’ve been editing and proofing. I’m just happy to go wherever the ideas take me.
The Handbooks for Little Humans series is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.
AWESOME EXTRAS
Take a look inside Fairness at the publisher’s website
Take a look inside Friendship at the publisher’s website
Visit Zanni Louise’s website for more about her and her books
Visit Maja Veselinovic’s website for more about her and her art
alphabetsoup.net.au 