Anita Kelly Gaunt
Author of The Fair Factor Illustrated by Theadora Allison Published by Literacy Tales |
About the author
There's something magical about opening a book and entering the world of a child, to see through their eyes, believe in magic and imagine without limitations. With my background in early childhood education, I like to write stories that inspire, teach and entertain children. I fill the pages of my books with rhyme and alliteration, to make reading fun and the learning natural. With my keen interest in early literacy, I’m developing my Literacy Tales series to help children build confidence around the alphabet by exploring letters and sounds. I also think it is important for children to be able to explore ideas, values and concepts relevant to childhood and growing up. To make my books effective as a teaching tool in home or school environments, I include a quiz at the end, which encourages children to engage in discussions, recollect details and reflect on elements of learning within the story. Activity suggestions also provide an avenue for extended learning. I am a self-proclaimed book worm. I live in Cambridge and work as an early childhood teacher and full-time mum. Published Works: The Cat who Couldn’t Cook – Literacy Tales series, 2015 Wolf’s Wishing Well – Literacy Tales series, 2016 The Fair Factor – Literacy Tales series, 2017 The Spirit of the Ninja – 2017 |
Synopsis for The Fair Factor:
Two misbehaving children get more than they bargain for when a fairy turns up out of the blue and decides to give them a taste of their own medicine. The youngsters wake up the next day and discover that they’ve become fully grown adults! And their parents? Well, they’re not so big anymore …
Follow along with Fiona and Finn on this very grown up adventure as they take a walk in someone else’s shoes.
Concept for the book:
As adults we have all heard children express frustration about things not being fair! With this concept in mind and having experienced my own fair share of challenging behaviour, I thought it would be great to explore these dynamics within a story. Children get frustrated, but parents do too!
Readers (and parents) will relate to the characters and the chaos, and by the end of the tale learn to start seeing things from a different perspective. Children can start to imagine the difficulties involved in being grown up and the impact of their own behaviour. Ultimately, showing appreciation and respect for our families makes life a little better for everyone.
The Writing Process:
With the concept fixed in my mind, I then had to decide on a letter to link the story to. I was drawn to the letter F based on the phrase “It’s not fair” running through my head over and over again. I envisaged the main characters being a typical brother and sister pair, who would argue over just about anything. I wanted there to be a big contrast in their relationship by the end of the story to demonstrate the effect their experience had had on them. It brings them closer together and unifies them.
The parents needed to come across as people who had tried all the usual parenting tricks. Despite their best efforts, the message wasn’t getting through to the children. They are very stressed about the constant firefighting they need to do every day. Their transformation into their younger selves allows them to have some fun, and Fiona and Finn see a completely different side of their parents.
The experience of switching places had to be triggered somehow, and again with the letter F in mind, I wanted to use a fairy. In my head I saw her looking quite strict, dressed as a football umpire complete with wand, whistle and red and yellow cards. The fairy would be introduced as someone who had been monitoring the children and was unimpressed with their behaviour. Using her magic, she sets into motion an opportunity for the children to experience their own behaviour first hand. The fairy believes in consequences and keeping thing fair. She recognises the need for the children to broaden their perspective and to learn to be considerate towards other people. Her character is similar to the idea of Santa Claus. She is an invisible entity and children do not know when she is around ‘watching’. I wanted the story to end with her flying away over the neighbourhood to see who else needs her help (something for the reader to think about!)
The story was coming together in my mind and as I started to write. I had to incorporate the literacy objective of the story. I had to focus on using words with the ‘ef’ sound to create alliteration and making the rhyme work while moving the story along in a natural way. There is a fine balance in doing this while also considering the rhyme pattern within each line, counting out the beats in each sentence. Maintaining the structure and integrity of the story is important as it makes the story easy to read and predictable for the reader. You can hear if a sentence doesn’t completely work or if it feels forced. This process takes a lot of time and gets revised and changed multiple times. This process is the biggest challenge but I enjoy it immensely. The blend of creativity balanced within the structure of the story’s composition feels like putting together a masterpiece. All the pieces need to come together in perfect harmony to fit and complement each other. It is a very personal journey and you put your heart and soul into it. To share a story and put it out into the world to be read, enjoyed, judged, and criticised by others – it takes bravery and passion. I’m constantly learning and looking for ways to continue growing and developing as a writer.
Two misbehaving children get more than they bargain for when a fairy turns up out of the blue and decides to give them a taste of their own medicine. The youngsters wake up the next day and discover that they’ve become fully grown adults! And their parents? Well, they’re not so big anymore …
Follow along with Fiona and Finn on this very grown up adventure as they take a walk in someone else’s shoes.
Concept for the book:
As adults we have all heard children express frustration about things not being fair! With this concept in mind and having experienced my own fair share of challenging behaviour, I thought it would be great to explore these dynamics within a story. Children get frustrated, but parents do too!
Readers (and parents) will relate to the characters and the chaos, and by the end of the tale learn to start seeing things from a different perspective. Children can start to imagine the difficulties involved in being grown up and the impact of their own behaviour. Ultimately, showing appreciation and respect for our families makes life a little better for everyone.
The Writing Process:
With the concept fixed in my mind, I then had to decide on a letter to link the story to. I was drawn to the letter F based on the phrase “It’s not fair” running through my head over and over again. I envisaged the main characters being a typical brother and sister pair, who would argue over just about anything. I wanted there to be a big contrast in their relationship by the end of the story to demonstrate the effect their experience had had on them. It brings them closer together and unifies them.
The parents needed to come across as people who had tried all the usual parenting tricks. Despite their best efforts, the message wasn’t getting through to the children. They are very stressed about the constant firefighting they need to do every day. Their transformation into their younger selves allows them to have some fun, and Fiona and Finn see a completely different side of their parents.
The experience of switching places had to be triggered somehow, and again with the letter F in mind, I wanted to use a fairy. In my head I saw her looking quite strict, dressed as a football umpire complete with wand, whistle and red and yellow cards. The fairy would be introduced as someone who had been monitoring the children and was unimpressed with their behaviour. Using her magic, she sets into motion an opportunity for the children to experience their own behaviour first hand. The fairy believes in consequences and keeping thing fair. She recognises the need for the children to broaden their perspective and to learn to be considerate towards other people. Her character is similar to the idea of Santa Claus. She is an invisible entity and children do not know when she is around ‘watching’. I wanted the story to end with her flying away over the neighbourhood to see who else needs her help (something for the reader to think about!)
The story was coming together in my mind and as I started to write. I had to incorporate the literacy objective of the story. I had to focus on using words with the ‘ef’ sound to create alliteration and making the rhyme work while moving the story along in a natural way. There is a fine balance in doing this while also considering the rhyme pattern within each line, counting out the beats in each sentence. Maintaining the structure and integrity of the story is important as it makes the story easy to read and predictable for the reader. You can hear if a sentence doesn’t completely work or if it feels forced. This process takes a lot of time and gets revised and changed multiple times. This process is the biggest challenge but I enjoy it immensely. The blend of creativity balanced within the structure of the story’s composition feels like putting together a masterpiece. All the pieces need to come together in perfect harmony to fit and complement each other. It is a very personal journey and you put your heart and soul into it. To share a story and put it out into the world to be read, enjoyed, judged, and criticised by others – it takes bravery and passion. I’m constantly learning and looking for ways to continue growing and developing as a writer.