Janet Kelly talks about her new children’s picture book – DORIS MORRIS: The Invasion of the Neighbours – and how it addresses deeper issues of bullying and forgiveness.
Janet Kelly
“Writing about a pet is easy. They have very special characteristics that only an owner can understand, making a cat or a dog a perfect protagonist!
Doris Morris: The Invasion of The Neighbours started as a story about my own twenty year old moggy who spent her last couple of years with dementia, believing the other cats in the house were her kittens and so stealing food from neighbours to feed them.
Being long haired she managed to collect a variety of items in her fur, which would stay resolutely entrenched until we’d changed the sheets or put out some new towels, when they would drop with great ease for some hapless guest to discover.
In many ways she was quite revolting but was such a character then when she died I felt compelled to write some kind of homage to her.
The story of Doris Morris is more than just a children’s story – it aims to cover, very gently, the subjects of bullying, family values and forgiveness.
When Doris the very old family cat finds herself getting into trouble because of neighbouring moggies she thinks she just has to put up with the tellings-off she gets from the adult humans.
But when Amy and Ted, the children, work out what is happening, they come to her rescue – with humour, fun and plenty of colourful pictures, drawn beautifully by the illustrator Sam Porter.
As well as telling a story that young children could relate to, I wanted to write a book that would go back to the ‘old days’ of reading, rather than offering a technological experience. Its wide format allows for an adult and child to both hold the book with ease while the hand-drawn pictures are all individual and original rather than computer generated.
This format allows for something more cosy and meaningful plus it gives an opportunity for an adult to be more involved in terms of some of the underlying messages about bullying or trusting the family if you have a problem.
There are plans for another two books in the series. The Invasion of the Neighbours is the first and further books covering subjects such as new additions to the family, extended family and growing up, will be available soon.”
Copies of Doris Morris are available to purchase from Troubador Publishing Ltd:
http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=4425
