Tourmaline and the Island of Elsewhere by Ruth Lauren
Check out today’s guest blog from Ruth Lauren all about classic adventure films and how they relate to her new book Tourmaline and the Island of Elsewhere!
Classic adventure films and new, feminist adventure books
by Ruth Lauren
I love a good classic adventure film. There’s nothing like going off on a treasure quest with The Goonies or an ancient relic hunting mission with Indiana Jones. I’ve always loved Raiders of the Lost Ark. The adventure, the travel, the historical artefacts, the daring in the face of evil and the eventual triumph of our heroes. And Marion Ravenwood, the female lead of the film. She was tough, independent and resourceful. But important as she was to me, she wasn’t the main character. During the 80s, when I was a kid, precious few girls or women in adventure films were. But this was something I was used to. It was something I didn’t even fully realise I wanted and missed until much later.
Fast forward to the pandemic, when our lives were upturned and an isolated author needed a fun, escapist project to work on. A story with a bold, adventurous girl at its heart. Tourmaline and the Island of Elsewhere began with a wish to put that girl at the centre of a tale of magic and artefact hunters in a way that I’d always wanted, but never seen back when I needed it.
Tourmaline was always going to be front and centre in her own adventure and so it only seemed right to fill the story with more of the women I wanted to see in books – that I hope we all want to see in books. Tourmaline’s mother, the brave and intrepid archaeologist who Tourmaline sets off to rescue at the start of her quest. Her dauntless friend Mai who pulls off a daring rescue to help Tourmaline out. A band of all-female pirates who sail the seas plundering treasure led by their smart, roguish, middle-aged and grey-haired Captain (OK, maybe this last one’s just me). But the point is, we need to see ourselves as the centre of our own stories, the main characters in our own lives. And that’s harder to do if you’ve never seen yourself at the centre of a story in a film or a book.
Luckily, girls today get a lot more opportunity to see themselves as the hero, the adventurer, the main character in stories of all kinds in films, books and video games. But there’s always room for more. And girls, of course, aren’t the only ones who should see girls as main characters. Books have the power to foster empathy, and that’s exactly why boys need a myriad of stories about girls adventuring and rescuing, coming up with daring plans and executing them. Boys need to see themselves supporting girls, going along with girls as they forge their way through magical worlds (shout out to Tourmaline’s best friend, George!). Because as much as I want girls to love Tourmaline and her adventures, if we want true equality in our fictional worlds, and our real world, we need boys to love her and all her literary companions too.
Tourmaline and the Island of Elsewhere by Ruth Lauren is published by Little Tiger and is available now.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.
