Author Q & A
Anna McQuinn
About me...
I feel lucky to have a life 100% dedicated to books.
I write and edit books for little kids and their families.
I'm best known as the author of the Lulu/Lola books, though I've written over 25 picture books.
Why is reading so important?
Getting into reading as a child is something that will enhance your whole life.
It’s good for your brain – children who read a lot also excel at other subjects; it’s great for developing empathy – when we read we imagine ourselves as other people, living other lives and we have insights into how those lives might feel; it helps us to examine our own feelings and find names for them, and work out how we fit in the world; stories give us glimpses of possibilities – for ourselves and how we might live – far beyond our immediate experience; reading is an escape – to other worlds or emotions, especially on difficult days when immersing yourself in a story gives you an hour to forget your troubles or stresses; and most importantly, stories are places where we find ourselves – nobody says it better than James Baldwin: "You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”
What is your inspiration for the Lulu stories?
Lulu is me actually – though I’ve only just realised that! I was an avid reader from a young age (http://www.annamcquinn.com/article--purple-plastic-purse.html).
I read everything within reach, including the back of the cornflakes box while I was eating breakfast and the shampoo bottle while sitting on the loo!
We had a small library (in our small town) and at one stage I’d read everything in the children’s section (some more than once) and the librarian kindly gave me an Adult ticket then supervised my choices (there was very little for young and older teens then).
When I worked as an outreach librarian as part of a Sure Start project in Acton, West London, I wrote the first Lulu book, Lulu Loves the library but it was only recently that I realised that Lulu was based on my child self with her enthusiasm for books.
Which is your favourite book you have written?
It’s a tough choice between Lulu Gets a Cat and Lulu’s Sleepover – these two are based much more on personal experience than the others which really came about out of my work directly with families and children as part of the Sure Start project.
What did you enjoy reading as child?
I didn’t have a lot of choice as a child – I was growing up in a small rural town in the west of Ireland with a very small library. I’m afraid I actually can’t remember any picture books (I did have a card pages book about Five Little Ducks) but that’s all! By ages 8/9 Enid Blyton was a staple and my world was peopled by strange children in English boarding schools called Gwendolin that I had nothing in common with! I did enjoy Walter Macken’s Flight of the Doves (http://www.annamcquinn.com/blog/walter-macken-changed-my-life) and my two favourites as I got older were Watership Down and Little Women. Knowing what it feels like to not see myself in the stories I read has made me passionate about including all children in my own writing.
If you would like to find out more about Anna McQuinn and her books, her website details are below.
