Happy Saturday folx! After a few waterlogged days here in New England, we were graced with a sunny afternoon. Naturally, we spent it inside doing boring but necessary things like cleaning, laundry, and of course working on the website! Now it’s time to go outside and look for important favorites of ours like pretty rocks and soft moss. Hope you’re having a great Saturday, whatever is happening!
Annahita: Hi! My name is Annahita, I was born in the UK to an Iranian mother and Welsh father. I moved to Switzerland 11 years ago to be live with my German husband, and together we have two girls (5 and 6 years old) who haven’t got a clue if they are Swiss, German or British 🙂
A: I am passionate about naturally inclusive children’s books. I believe that fear and prejudice grow out of a lack of knowledge and exposure, and I feel that books are a wonderful way to broaden children’s minds, and introduce them to topics or people that they may not necessarily come across in their daily lives. I also believe that girls should be FAR better represented in children’s books. They need more inspiring role models in positive fictional stories that they can go to sleep dreaming about.
A: I am working with a wonderful illustrator, Jennifer Kirkham, to produce a series of books called the Hot Air Balloon Adventure series. The stories are about three cousins who go on adventures in a hot air balloon, exploring exciting destinations around the world. I wanted children to be reading stories about girls who do fun and physical stuff (like snowboarding and climbing), girls who encourage each other to be brave and work together to overcome obstacles, girls who have a passion for our beautiful world.
I am also working on re-writes of the traditional princess fairy tales, trying to keep the original magic and delight of the original stories, but just changing silly storylines being all about meeting a prince and getting married. In all of my books I ensure that the characters in the story are a mixture of skin colours, because I believe it’s important not just for children of colour to see themselves in the pages of books, but for white children to see themselves in the pages of books, alongside children of colour with equally important roles in the stories.
A: Follow me on social media (follow the links below!), sign up for updates on the website to know when new books are released, but most importantly buy the books, review the books, and spread the word about them to people who you think would also enjoy them! 🙂 At the moment, every penny of profit I make in book sales goes towards the cost of illustrating the next story.
A: Really?!? Only one?! Oh this is so hard. Well obviously I would like to say my own, but I will stop myself and instead say: I absolutely loved The Girls by Lauren Ace and Jennie Lovlie. It just says so much, so naturally with it’s illustrations and simple but powerful storyline. I cried the first ten times I read it to my children!
A: The third and fourth hot air balloon adventure stories coming out! Footprints in the Snow is coming out on 1st June; in this one the girls fly to Iceland to go snowboarding, and end up making a very large-footed friend. It’s a lovely story with a message about treating everyone as equals. In the fourth story, the girls go with Grandma on a mountain climbing expedition in Switzerland in search of some long lost treasure. So much adventure!!
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@jmk.ilus on Instagram