Primary school teacher and respected kids’ novelist Anne-Marie Conway’s How To Be More Hedgehog does not, strictly speaking, offer advice as per its title but, as she related to Karla Brading, it is somewhat hedgehog-themed!
If ever there was a book to invoke empathy in children and to offer a loving hand of support to those who struggle to muster words in public, Anne-Marie Conway’s How To Be More Hedgehog has succeeded, lacing together a story full of hope and inspiration.
Lily has a speech impediment. Whilst she’s managed to avoid certain words that trigger the worst of her stammering, she’s slowly starting to come to terms with the fact that she can’t hide forever. However, in showing her true colours, the world is seeing her too, and not everyone has the patience and kindness to appreciate the struggles young Lily is up against.
Anne-Marie Conway is no stranger to writing great books. As the author of the award-winning Butterfly Summer, she’s also a primary school teacher specialising in drama, as well as helping to run Full Circle, an inclusive musical theatre company for children. A passionate creative in all she does, How To Be More Hedgehog is Conway’s latest book… but what came first; the decision to write a book with hedgehogs as a theme, or the decision to focus on a protagonist with a speech impediment?
“Writing about a protagonist with a speech impediment came first,” Conway says. “I taught a girl called Rosie who had a stammer from when she was six until 11. She had a huge impact on me for several reasons. She was brilliant at drama and it seemed to be one of the few lessons where she didn’t stammer – when she was playing a different character.
“She was hugely confident as a six-year-old and very chatty, but by the time she got to Year 6, she had become very conscious of her stammer and so had the other girls in her class. They didn’t treat her very nicely and she became far more introverted. It was so difficult to see her confidence and self-esteem take such a nosedive. The idea for the title came quite near to the end of the writing process.”
YouTube and its opportunities are increasingly on the minds of our youth as they frequently mull over how to become successful vloggers. Conway’s book has, interestingly, highlighted a positive, child-friendly approach to the popular website. So, what inspired the idea and what kind of research was involved?
“I came to it from the point of view of giving Lily back control,” she explains. “I wanted to turn Lily’s negative experience of having something put online that she had no control over, into something positive that she did have control over. Something that she chose to put online. I wanted her to feel empowered, not because her stammer was ‘cured’ but because she was choosing to speak on topics that she was passionate about. I did listen to a lot of vlogs as research – especially vlogs and podcasts by people who stammer.”
With the struggles of stammering at the heart of Lily’s tale, does Conway have any advice for someone suffering from the low self-esteem that often comes with it?
“It’s hard for me to give advice because I don’t have a stammer myself,” she admits; “however, I did move abroad when I was 14 to a country where I didn’t speak the language. As a result, I went from being an extremely confident, chatty teenager to being almost mute. It had a huge impact on my self-esteem because I couldn’t express myself and I became scared to open my mouth. I expect that’s why teaching Rosie chimed with me so much.”
Big-hearted Lily also shows interest in caring for hibernating hedgehogs. Has Conway ever had the same opportunity?
“When I was Lily’s age, we did have a resident hedgehog in our garden and I remember taking out a saucer of milk each evening – which I now know isn’t the right thing to do! I actually chose to write about hedgehogs because I love that they’re prickly and use their spines to defend themselves, but I had to do loads of research because I didn’t actually know much about them at all…”
As Conway celebrates her new release with delicious, hedgehog-themed cupcakes and embarks on a kindly house-share with a Ukrainian family in need, she is equally as busy with new ideas for her next book.
How To Be More Hedgehog is published by Uclan. Price: £7.99. Info: here
words KARLA BRADING