Female Friendship in The Headline Hoax by Hannah Peck
Female Friendship in The Headline Hoax by Hannah Peck
The Headline Hoax is the third and final book in the Kate on the Case series for early readers.
At its centre, The Headline Hoax is a mystery. Someone is tampering with famous newspaper The Lookout Post, ruining headlines, swapping letters and smearing bin-juice all over the stories. Special-Correspondent-in-Training Kate has been ‘hired’ by CEO Figgy FitzHarris to solve the case before Catherine Rodriguez’s (Kate’s One True Idol) latest article is sent to print.
In hindsight the fact I work in print publishing almost certainly inspired the themes in this book – rounds of amends, proofreading, and constant attention to detail are all things I’m very familiar with, especially as an illustrator.
Unleashing chaos into a setting like this – a controlled and precise newspaper print-room – caught my imagination both in terms of plot, and how the illustrations would work, too. Indulging my own saboteur by means of scribbling and blobbing ink over (to clarify: ruining) my own illustrations felt delightfully childish and silly, an energy I hope appeals to young readers.
In book two (The Call of the Silver Wibbler) boat-bound Kate befriends Bertie, a shy but imaginative Bird-Scout, and together the two (alongside Rupert, Kate’s mouse) discover the whereabouts of an elusive bird. The pair made a balanced match, with Bertie’s whimsy and innocence softening some of Kate’s tougher qualities, and Kate’s confidence able to boost Bertie’s own.
In The Headline Hoax, Kate meets Francis FitzHarris, nepo-niece of Figgy and seemingly perfect child prodigy. Needless to say, first impressions aren’t great. Kate views Francis’s hyper-feminine presentation – dresses and long shiny hair – and as silly and vain, a contrast to her own ink-splattered and practical boiler suit.
Suspicious of Francis’ curated image (and possibly a little jealous of her success) Kate spends the first half of the book attempting to pin Francis as the saboteur. Spoiler alert: Francis isn’t, and the two become allies in their search for the real villain.
It was important to me that Kate and Francis became friends after initially making assumptions about the other. The two have much in common – humour, drive, and a willingness to bend the rules – but assumptions made on appearance kept them from seeing this. Having Kate re-route her judgement of Francis was, in part, a defence of the girlishness I so often saw levied against characters in books I read as a kid, where it was used as shorthand for vacuous, preoccupied and unintelligent. Writing a story where these two tropes – the tomboy and ‘girly-girl’ – could be developed and celebrated as unique characters was very satisfying.
It was also important to me to highlight that although both Kate and Frances are talented, clever and driven, that the hustle culture or girlboss ethos not be overly present in The Headline Hoax. I found Francis’ arc offered a way to balance this out. At the end of the book she finally finds the freedom to choose how she spends her time – a happy ending for an exhausted child prodigy. Now she can also decide what to wear, whether it’s a dress or pyjamas (the problem is not the performance of femininity but the relentless demand for it!)
At the heart of all Kate books is a call to question one’s own assumptions. Is the truth a simple, monochromatic headline, and what nuances do we miss if so? I hope the series can encourage young readers to exercise compassion and imagination for the lives of those around them, while enjoying plenty of silliness along the way.