Maybe you Might by Imogen Foxell

Maybe You Might: an interview with Imogen Foxell

Maybe You Might, written by Imogen Foxell, illustrated by Anna Cunha and published by Lantana, is a lyrical and hopeful environmental fable that struck a chord with us as we were thinking about this year’s National Share a Story Month theme: Changing the World, One Book at a Time. We were delighted to interview Imogen to discuss the inspiration behind the story.

The book captures and celebrates the magic of planting a seed and the power of growing things in such an uplifting way. ‘Help things grow, you never know … maybe you might’. Do you love growing things?

I would like to be more of a gardener. About one quarter of what I try to grow actually does but I wanted the book to reflect something precarious – maybe it might work! I have got one sage bush that did truly grow from one seed to half the garden; it’s magical when that happens.

What advice would you give to young gardeners?

Be patient and don’t expect everything to work. Put in a lot of seeds and if one comes up then that’s a miracle.

 

We love the way that this book is hopeful and inspiring. Is it based on a real story or a real person?

We have a clear and terrifying story about everything that is going wrong and a counter narrative about how we can mitigate or slow down some of the worse effects, but it’s all very defensive. I wondered where are the stories about actually making the world better? I found one about how Sebastião and Lélia Wanick Salgado bought a plot of land in Brazil and completely reforested it. Although it didn’t directly inspire the book, that was one of the things in my head at the time.

 

How do you stay optimistic in the face of so many worrying stories?

Part of me was asking what if the worst happens, what if everything dies, what then? Even then could we still make it right again? I don’t always feel very hopeful but writing the book did help. I find reading comforts me too – for example, Ursula le Guin’s classic, Always Coming Home has helped me out of some low places. It’s set in a utopian California in the future. The planet has suffered many catastrophes, but humanity has rediscovered a way to live in harmony with the rest of the world. Whatever does happen, we cannot get the environment back the way it was, but we might get a beautiful and good new ecosystem.

 

The rhythmic rhyming text is deceptively simple, predictable enough for children to join in but lyrical too. The shift from the hopeful voice of the child to the voices of doom-mongers is so clever. How did you approach choosing the words?

I came up with two lines of it while I was waiting for my bike to be fixed and it had to be in rhyme after that because I had those two lines! I also wanted to write it very clearly and simply, almost like a folk song or protest song.

 

The illustrator has dedicated this to indigenous Brazilian people. Did you know her before writing the book? How far did she inspire it?

I didn’t know Anna before but when she was suggested, I liked the way her work was painterly and featured so many trees. When I wrote the book it wasn’t particularly set in the Amazon but what I most love about her illustration is that she has very specifically rooted it in a particular place and culture that she knows and where it works perfectly.