The Girl who Became a Fish is an absolutely lovely story of a little girl who is afraid of a lot of things: talking to classmates at her new school, walking through her new town and, most of all, swimming. Then, one day, she dips her hands in the river and something unusual happens! She grows fins and her skin is covered in scales. This transformation becomes a symbol of her growing bravery and how she is willing to push herself to help others. Inspirational themes of dealing with change, the importance of home, caring for older relatives and a little bit of magic make this a very special story.
I’m delighted to welcome author Polly Ho-Yen and illustrator Sojung Kim-McCarthy to my blog with a guest post sharing their inspirations and writing/illustrating routines.
POLLY HO-YEN:
When I’m planning a book, it usually starts with a moment for a character that comes first and so for ‘The Girl Who Became a Fish,’ it was imagining a girl turning into a fish. Then come a million questions – who is this person? Would she want to turn into a fish? What’s happening in her life right now? As I answer them, the plot and the themes reveal themselves. I think I still find the pure joy of creating a story is what I enjoy most about being an author. It just feels exciting to make things and I’ve always loved that feeling since I’ve been a small kid.
A particular inspiration for this book is my love for wild swimming. It’s one of my very favourite things to do in the world. It feels so exhilarating and demands every bit of your attention. It’s as if you undergo a kind of transformation as your body plunges into very cold water. It’s startling but then you find the strength to move through it. I feel keenly aware of how my family is changing at the moment; my daughter was born three years ago, I’m pregnant right now, I’m lucky that I have my parents although I worry deeply about some of the health challenges they are facing. The idea that I need to face these changes, just as I do with cold water, is the underlying, personal inspiration for this story.
I don’t have a ‘typical’ writing day – not since I became a mum! I grab any moment I can and sometimes I have to be quite creative about where and how I write. I used to enjoy working in the mornings but nowadays I have a lovely, bouncy three year old who’s asking me to do many important things – like pretend I’m a customer in a shoe shop or a donkey or a post delivery person – as soon as I open my eyes. If I manage to wake up before my daughter and don’t feel too tired then I’ll try to work first thing but often I don’t manage that. And so my work days are very much shaped around what my kid is up to and that varies from day to day. I kind of love that being an author gives me that freedom to work around being a mum – although it’s challenging too. I work everywhere – on our messy dining table, in the writing hut I have in the garden and in a network of local places I go to when I need to get out of the way at home. I’ve found recently that writing out of my house comes much more easily to me than it used to. Often I go on a sort of relay around cafes, my local library and the city farm – all within stomping distance of my house. Moving from place to place and giving myself a very manageable target in each location has helped to focus me and stopped the feeling of overwhelm setting in.
SOJOUNG KIM-MCCARTHY:
As a book illustrator, I love being one of the first readers of a book and to be able to put a face to the story. Illustration is so much more than making nice drawings that sit next to the text – the pictures can make story more relatable and add extra layers. So when I’m illustrating someone else’s text, I have to consider a lot of things like I’m solving a puzzle. What is already said in the text? What information can I add in the images to help tell the story? What should I NOT draw and keep it hidden? In a way, I’m thinking as if I’m the second author of the book and I’ve been very lucky working with Polly because she doesn’t mind me acting like her sidekick and gives me so much freedom.
My absolute favourite illustration in this book is a double spread where Ita is swimming across the river to go and check on her Grandma. It’s a very important moment in the story where Ita overcomes her fear and steps forward. You might notice that Ita’s proportions here are a bit different from other scenes – her limbs are longer and she looks a bit older as a result. I would usually try to keep the body proportions consistent throughout the book as it’s part of the character design. But I thought I could use some artistic license in this spread, because when you do something you were so afraid to do, you grow up a little in that moment and I wanted Ita’s growing up to show in the illustration. I also enjoyed drawing Dad’s gobsmacked face in the corner.
I work from the biggest bedroom in my house, which I have turned into my art studio. It’s a south-west facing room so it’s nice and warm all afternoon (I hate cold!). While I work, my cat Baileys sleeps in her bed on top of the paper drawer by the window and my dog Georgiou sleeps under my work table. Like any good illustrator, I don’t fully function as a human being until I have a nice cup of coffee in the morning. Sometimes I get sugar cravings in the afternoon, especially if I’m making sketches – I’m told it’s because the only fuel a human brain can use is sugar. Thankfully my husband is very good at baking chunky chocolate cakes!
When I’m not super busy working to a deadline, I like making series of drawings using traditional media. Sometimes I draw from photos I took when travelling, sometimes I just draw my dog like everyone does and should.
The biggest drawing series I made is the one of plastic waste I found on Bournemouth beach – I made daily drawings for a year to record the variety and the abundance(!) of plastic rubbish I found while walking on my local beach. All 365 drawings were exhibited at Dorset Wildlife Trust visitor centre. https://sojungkimmccarthy.art/found-plastic-on-bournemouth-beach
The Girl Who Became a Fish by Polly Ho-Yen, illustrated by Sojung Kim-McCarthy is published by Knights Of. www.knightsof.media.
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