Emily Windsnap is an ordinary girl on land, but a mermaid when she is in water. Liz has created a world and stories brimming with magic, adventure, friendship… and in this new story, we see Emily become more of a young feminist; taking matters into her own hands when her boyfriend is kidnapped; ensuring that young girl readers see her take a confident place in a male-dominated world, in this case a pirate ship.
Showing that it is just fine to be seen as brave and strong, and that friendships are worth fighting for was a theme important to Liz. This is a transformative moment for a beloved character: moving from being dependent, and often reliant on others, to realising her own power, and being an individual and self reliant, ok within herself.
The Emily Windsnap series has been going strong for years, selling over 5million copies worldwide and translated into dozens of languages. This is the 8th title, but I’m ashamed to say it was the first I have read. It is aimed at a younger audience than the usual TeenLibrarian fodder, 8+, but now that Matt and I are occasionally even popping picturebooks in I thought it still had a place, and I’m certain that younger teens will still enjoy Emily’s adventures! One of my favourite things about it is how important friendship is.
Liz does some intense research when planning each story, and shared with us the adventure she had researching this title:
When people ask about my job, I tell them I sit in my pyjamas looking out at the sea and making up stories about mermaids.
And yes, this is true. (Full disclosure, I am actually writing this blog in my PJs. It’s pretty much the writer’s uniform.) But that isn’t all I do. In fact, one of my absolute favourite parts of my job is the bit that gets me out in the world, researching and seeking ideas for my book.
Sometimes I find what I thought I was looking for. Most of the time, I find much, much more.
I went on two research trips for my latest book, Emily Windsnap and the Pirate Prince. One of them was a road trip to France where I visited Mont St Michel (a tiny island with a castle on a hill) and the old, walled city of St Malo.
The other trip was a week on a tall ship.
When I went on the ship, I already knew that I was looking for inspiration for my pirate prince. What I didn’t know was that I would find a couple of pirate girls at the same time.
Michelle and Anaïs, the two female crew members aboard the tall ship Morgenster, were two of the most inspiring young women I’ve met in a long time. Tough, active, clever, witty, musical and as ready as any of the boys to whizz up a ladder to hoist the sails, these girls were an absolute joy to be with.
And of course they found their way into my book. In the book, there is a moment when Emily confronts the two pirate girls aboard the ship where she has (sort of) been taken prisoner. She says to them, ‘How many girls braid each other’s hair and do it up with ship’s wire instead of pink ribbons? How many girls can fix the cable on the forestay better than their male counterparts?’
In this moment, she is pointing out that by living outside of what society would deem ‘normal’ for girls, they are uniquely positioned to stand up for themselves and for each other and to look beyond the shackles that tie all of us to society’s rules and expectations. And of course, in doing this, Emily realises that she has the right to do the same thing.
I had no idea at the time that Emily was going to grow up to become the young feminist that emerges in this book. But I’m glad she has!
One of the ‘real’ pirate girls, Anaïs, told me this:
‘As a child, the fact that I personally happened to be a girl was always very irrelevant when it came to games, dreams and aspirations, although I did take it into account when I wanted my games to be historically realistic. Every summer holiday my Dad and I pretended the house turned into a pirate ship and we were having those grand adventures. Then, there was no question of gender of course. But when my games turned into more realistic “period pieces” I remember either assuming I *was* a boy (why not? I don’t live in the 18th century either), or alternatively, giving some thoughts to how to look more like a boy, in order to be able to fool a captain and be hired as a ship’s boy.’
I believe that this type of imaginative play is an essential and wonderful part of growing up, and I also think we are living in times when girls are finding themselves becoming more and more ‘allowed’ to take on whatever roles they want.
I am proud to be a children’s author and am particularly proud and honoured that I get to write about Emily Windsnap. If she is part of passing the message to girls and young women that they can be anything they want to be, regardless of gender, then I will consider every moment of sitting in my PJs staring out at the sea making up stories about mermaids to have been time well spent.
I wanted to ask Liz a few more questions after reading about Emily, and she humoured me:
I really enjoyed reading your FCBG post about building a relationship with your characters & wondered what object you had on your desk while writing this book! Actually this time I had a few objects! The main one was a crystal on a chain that I bought from a shop in Tenerife. When I bought it, I thought it had something to do with the book but at the time I wasn’t sure what it’s significance would be. It turned out that diamonds and sparkling lights – similar to the light from this crystal – would form an important part of Emily solving clues and finding the treasure!
You didn’t plan to write so many Emily Windsnap books, have you got any more ideas in the pipeline or will you just wait and see if inspiration strikes again? Well, I’m thrilled to tell you that Emily Windsnap book nine will be out in 2020!
Which of the research trips you’ve been on has been your favourite? That is a HARD question, and in fact I can’t pick one so I’m going to have to give you my top three: Bermuda (for the Monster from the Deep), a cruise in Norway (for the Land of the Midnight Sun), and a tall ship trip in the Canaries (for the Pirate Prince)
Your book for older teens, ‘Read Me Like a Book‘, is a coming out story. Have you considered including LGBT+ content in the Emily Windsnap series? I have thought about this, but the way I see it, the Emily Windsnap books are ALL about people overcoming prejudice and different communities learning to live together and people (especially Emily!) fighting for social justice and the right for all of us to be who we are – and so I see the books as actually having the themes that I want to share, but doing so through mermaid stories rather than more ‘rea-world’ content/issues. In that sense, the books can put across the ideas and messages that I want them to, but hopefully in a way that feels fun, non-confrontational and appropriate for eight-year-olds!
Emily Windsnap and the Pirate Prince is out now! Thankyou to Orion for a review copy
