The Girl Who Noticed Everything
We have an inspirational blog for you from Jane Porter, explaining the inspiration behind her books and her thrill of working with young children.
The Inspiration Behind The Girl Who Noticed Everything and Why Stella’s Story Matters by Jane Porter
Every week I visit a local nursery and spend a very happy hour making pictures and reading stories with the children there. It’s both joyful and inspiring for me, and it keeps me in touch with how young children feel, think and interact – essential for a picture book writer!
The children always love to show me things, from a special pair of socks to an ‘ouchy’ that needed a sticking plaster. Often the things are so tiny that it takes me a while to work out what they mean – such as a burst balloon in a distant tree, or a tiny piece of Sellotape on a table. What catches their eye fascinates me, and was part of the inspiration for The Girl Who Noticed Everything – together with my own childhood memories of being absorbed in watching something small that adults hadn’t spotted.
But the story is about much more than that. I was delighted to read Jill Bennett’s Red Reading Hub review, which described the story as ‘wonderfully empowering’ – because that is exactly my goal, both with this book and The Boy Who Loved Everyone. I have two aims: the first is to help children feel that what they see, hear and feel is important and valuable, and that they can make a difference in the world. The second is to persuade parents of the benefits of slowing down, and spending time really listening to their children and taking pleasure together in life’s minutiae, rather than rushing from one activity to the next. As a parent of now adult children, I know from experience that children just want someone to pay them good attention, in a simple playful way with no goals or expectations.
Stella’s natural curiosity is something that will resonate with many children and parents, I hope – the tension between her open-hearted interest in life and Dad’s worry that she’ll cause offence is a tricky area to navigate. During the editorial process we had many discussions about how to make sure that Dad doesn’t come across as negative, and I hope I have ended up with the right balance. Above all I wanted the story to end on a very warm note, with Dad gaining some insight along the way.
I feel very lucky to have worked with Maisie Paradise Shearring on two books now – in both of them, her artwork captures to perfection the emotional warmth and real-world detail I was hoping for. I’ve been reading The Girl Who Noticed Everything in schools and the children love to spot the conkers, squirrels, leaves and cats that Maisie has added. I was really touched this week when I read the story in a Year 1 class and afterwards a little Sikh boy said “I noticed there was a Sikh in the book”. He was just delighted to see himself on the page – and I am really happy that Maisie’s illustrations reflect real life in this natural, real way. I hope we will be able to work together again and have my thinking hat on!
The Girl Who Noticed Everything is published by Walker Books and available now.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federation.