Sarah Lean
About Author
Sarah Lean grew up in Wells, Somerset but now lives in Dorset with her husband, son and dog. She has worked as a page-planner for a newspaper, a stencil-maker and a gardener, amongst various other things. She gained a first class English degree and became a primary school teacher before returning to complete an MA in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Winchester. A Dog Called Homeless was her first novel.
Interview
SAND DOG
HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN'S BOOKS
MAY 2018
Author Sarah Lean's earlier books, which include A Dog Called Homeless and Hero, explore how children are sometimes lead to question their sense of identity and the world in which they find themselves; in these stories, an animal becomes key in helping the children to find answers to some of their questions.
In Sand Dog, we follow a boy called Azi whose life has been turned upside-down following his grandfather's disappearance and he is left in the care of his uncle. Azi makes friends with a girl, Beth, who agrees to help him find the owners of a homeless dog they call Sand Dog and in so doing, also helps Azi find some answers to the questions he has about his identity, his home, and where he feels he belongs.
We asked author SARAH LEAN to tell us more about SAND DOG:
Q: The Sand Dog is about a boy's relationship with his grandfather, why did you want a grandparent to play such an important role in this book?
A: I hardly knew my grandparents but I have the privilege of knowing some very elderly friends. They are full of stories and have generously shared first-hand peepholes into their history and lives.
The older generation connect us to a wider sense of the world and their experiences survive in many ways to still influence us today. Without giving too much away, Grandfather represents time; he is history and therefore the story within which the boy is raised.
Q: The reader never actually meets the grandfather though, did that make it harder to explore the relationship between him and his grandson, Azi?
A: Not at all. One of the considerations for a writer of children's stories is often the question of how to get rid of the guardians! This explains the many orphans in children's books and serves a purpose as a writer's device to enable the story to be written from the child's perspective. When left to their own devices, a child character can then steer the story to its fulfilment and their own growth.
With Grandfather absent, Azi explores his own identity and the traits he has learned from Grandfather, even though he doesn't understand why he feels like he does. He starts to think for himself and, with the help of Beth (a global nomad) and a stray dog, is able to discover and understand who he is, where he's from, what he can change and what he has to accept.
Q: In the course of the story and Azi's searching for his missing grandfather, you explore children's sense of belonging. Is this something that you feel many children question?
A: There has been a tremendous surge in news stories about refugees as well as Brexit - both about belonging and, very importantly, not-belonging. I am very interested in how we sense our place within families, communities and countries as well as how we form our views.
As with the previous question, I think at a young age we might take on board the views of those around us, sometimes without question, sometimes with questionable motives.
I'd like to hope that more room can be made for children to explore wider and deeper issues that affect all of us and for them to hear from those with other views and experiences. How else do we grow in empathy, compassion or understanding? I think stories are an ideal medium for this kind of exploration.
Q: How hard did you find it exploring your way through this story to find Azi's answers to that question of what gives that sense of belonging, or 'home'?
A: I asked myself a lot of questions and found it both challenging and worthwhile. If we take for granted that our sense of belonging comes from family, home and country, what happens when all this is lost, e.g. because of war? Is the sense of belonging lost with it? Does only a sense of longing remain?
When I was a teenager, my dad moved to Cyprus. I know how I felt, but I hadn't questioned what it had been like for him to be away from familiar things. Dad's best friend in Cyprus was an Armenian carpet seller who had been a persecuted refugee. Even though they were from different backgrounds and countries, they shared a kindred spirit of not-belonging.
This kind of revelation didn't leave me with a sense of sadness but instead gave a new understanding of the desire for connection. I don't have a definite answer to this exploration of belonging and consider the story as a kind of open-ended investigation in itself.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your setting for this story, and why you chose it?
A: After Dad moved to Cyprus, the first holiday abroad my sister and I took with him was to the Greek island of Skiathos. We stayed in a house by a beach and heard the sea from our bedroom window at night. This came to be the setting of Azi's uncle's restaurant.
My experiences of holidaying with Dad in Cyprus, Greece and the islands were of visiting beaches, restaurants and ancient monuments. While I was writing, I was reminded of the ruins and remains of places and cultures, and the forms in which they are still present today.
When I visited Cyprus, I had felt more like a tourist though and had always thought that Dad would eventually move back to England. He never did; but where he lived wasn't what anchored us to him.
Q: Many of your books involve animals, in this story it is the 'sand dog' that carries that idea of searching for its true home. Why did you decide to introduce the dog to the story?
A: Historically the image of a dog in front of the fire embodies the idea of home, suggesting companionship, rest and comfort as well as the bricks and mortar of a building. Interestingly, in law, dogs are considered as 'property'. When we say 'the dog belongs to me' it is the same as saying (in law) 'the bicycle belongs to me'. But if I were to ask whether you thought of your pet as either a member of the family or a possession what would you answer?
Without saying too much, the 'sand dog'is a both a feeling of home and a physical place, but it's the physical things that can be lost. When we make a sandcastle on the beach, the tide comes in and washes the shape away but the sand never disappears. Imagine how many new sandcastles you can make.
Q: You also introduce turtles to the story, which have strong homing instincts. Did you do much research into turtles for this book or are they something you've already explored?
A: I can't for the life of me think how the turtles got into the story now! I do have a memory of waking up to a strange sound one night at the beach house in Skiathos and thought something was climbing out of the sea – maybe it was that.
But like any aspect of a story I do some research and if I see connections that will enhance the story, then I follow it up and investigate widely. I talked to my brother-in-law, Rupert, who has spent his life on the sea and has an incredible connection to nature and asked him if he'd had any encounters with turtles. That kind of personal insight is invaluable.
Q: Why do animals have such an important place in your books?
A: When I was about eight I found a stray cat – actually she found me - and the bond we had was probably the strongest I have ever had with an animal. When things were difficult, I always felt a kind of reassurance when I was with the cat.
When you're feeling without value, animals seem to offer something to you without conditions or judgement. It's this kind of relationship within a story that I'm drawn to, as well as a strong motivation in the character to overcome their difficulties. Animals can also allow you to create a more comfortable distance between the reader and a difficult topic.
Q: What are your top tips for writers for including animals in stories?
A: I decide on a theme (e.g. belonging, memory, silence) and it's while the human characters are forming and their story coming to light that it often feels as if a certain type of animal naturally fits. I'm interested in lots of animals and research them thoroughly. I once spent the day at a wildlife sanctuary looking after otters to help me get a feel for them and how they behave.
So, my tips are mostly to do with the theme of a story:
- What is your story about? What animal does this make you think of?
- Choose an animal that you feel a connection to and are interested in.
- Think about the relationship of the humans with the animal and what that implies.
- How does this animal help to draw out the character's motivation?
- Spend time watching animals and research in factual and fiction books, wildlife programmes and in real life.
Q: Have you ever used your own animals / pets in your stories, do you have a favourite pet?
A: I have two dogs. Harry was the inspiration for A Dog Called Homeless and Coco was the inspiration behind Jack Pepper in Hero. I can't say they are the same as the dogs in the stories but some of their character is recognisable. Harry and Coco are naughtier though. I wouldn't dare pick a favourite because Harry seems to understand most of what I say and he'd probably tell Coco and then there would be all kinds of trouble.
Q: Where do you write and how does your writing day go? Can you describe your dream 'writer's shed' and where it would be?
A: I have a room in the house with bookshelves, dog beds, postcards, photos, an x-ray of my head and a large world map on the wall. The table was made from an old wardrobe door and painted by my husband's late grandfather. It's got a long crack down the middle where biscuit crumbs fall through.
I always start the day with a dog walk. In my head, I often run over scenes from a story and when I'm happy can usually remember it word for word when I get to my computer. If the writing is flowing I often forget to eat lunch; if it's not, I might watch a film, meet a friend, check on the newts in the pond - you never know when you might hear or see something that sparks an idea.
Sometimes I think a warm shed in the mountains would be nice (as long as there's a shop nearby) but my room is my dream writing place.
Q: What are you writing now?
A: I'm writing about a snow leopard which has been promised for some time (it's mostly about dreams and belief). I'm still editing because I want to be sure it's saying what I want it to say.
TIGER DAYS AND THE SECRET CAT
PUBLISHED BY HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN'S BOOKS
MAY 2016
Sarah Lean's earlier titles which have included A Dog Called Homeless, The Forever Whale and Harry and Hope have established her as a writer with a sure touch writing about subjects like families and friendships, often with a pet or animal in the mix.
While her stories to date have been for middle grade readers aged nine years plus, Lean is moving into younger territory with her new series, Tiger Days, which features a girl - Tiger Days of the title - getting to know her grandmother May Days, who has been living in Africa on a wildlife reserve but who has now moved back to England.
Going to stay with May brings a myriad of new adventures for Tiger, but also challenges including sleeping outside in a tent and getting to know the small creatures that her grandmother ends up caring for, including a young and mischievous warthog called Monday and a secretive cat.
We caught up with Sarah Lean and she answered the following questions about her new series:
Q: Why did you want to start writing for younger readers?
A: It actually came about from a conversation with my editor who encouraged me to try writing for younger children. Having done so, I've really enjoyed it. I've found you can almost be more playful with words and there's a lightness to the subject matter.
The writing I've been doing has been in the first person and exploring that struggle around growing up and finding out who you are. With younger children, it's a simpler world of discovery and I enjoyed playing with words in a different way and had a lot of fun with the vocabulary.
My other books are written in the first person, this is in the third person and you can add in humour and describe what is happening in a very different way. The dialogue moves the action along to the next thing and expresses exactly what they are thinking; with teenagers it's largely internalised.
Q: The child, Tiger Days, develops a great relationship with her grandmother, May Days, but she's not a traditional grandmother figure. How did May Days develop?
A: I wanted someone who would be an inspiration to Tiger and I thought long and hard about what she'd be like. I thought Tiger would expect a little old lady, knitting, who lived in a cosy cottage, but that was exactly what I didn't want. I wanted her to role up her sleeves and get on with things. The contrast is Grumps, the neighbour, who sews and makes cakes. There might be a future for him and May Days, I'll have to think about that!
Q: Why do you make it such a great contrast for Tiger, between her normal life and the life she has visiting her grandmother?
A: May Days' house is the most extraordinary experience of Tiger's life. She's a little city girl who lives mostly in her room reading up about tigers and suddenly she finds herself in this sprawling garden in the country, she comes out and she can flourish. At first she is afraid and tentative but May Days provides constant reassurance to her, without interfering, so she is free to fulfill her potential.
I think encouragement is the biggest gift that society can give to children, rather than the answers and May just nudges the children on and helps them to gain their own confidence; she's a very encouraging person and Tiger is in a safe environment, but free.
Q: Like your other stories, you introduce animals into this one, a warthog and a cat. Why do you feel animals are such a significant part of the storytelling process for you?
A: I think it's a reflection of my own childhood. There's something about animals that brings out the best that's to be found in people. They act as a blank canvas but reflect back a lot of ourselves in some ways.
I don't set out in my stories with an animal in mind but an animal generally appears along the way, but it's always relevant and reflecting something back at the character in some way.
In this story the animals are there for Tiger, to help her find out more about herself, but then they each go back to where they belong. The cat has it's own life and the warthog is returned to the zoo. They don't really belong to people but we have a responsibility to them but they leave when they need to. It's about having the right relationship with our environment and conservation work. I'm trying to describe our relationship with nature, that you're not there to improve on nature but to assist when help is needed.
Q: But why did you decide on a warthog, a creature that doesn't come with an instant 'ahh' factor?
A: That's true! There are creatures that are cute and fluffy and that we're naturally drawn to and there are others like sloths and warthogs that we're not. It was important for me that Tiger is asked to look after a creature that we're not normally drawn to but she comes to understand that connecting with it goes much deeper, that the beauty of the animal is not in how it looks. I want to have more creatures like this in my stories! The amazing thing about the book Charlotte's Web is that it's about a spider. EB White got us to love a spider!
Q: The setting for the story is the wild garden of the grandmother's house - is it based on somewhere you know?
A: I think it harks back to my own childhood. Although I lived on a brand new estate, because it was still being built we had a wild area about 100 yards from our front door with a conker tree and a gully and triangle of grass - we had specific places for all the areas we'd meet and play in. Groups of us would go and wander around, find things to do, climb things - and conkers were big in those days!
We grew up with a sense of the environment and being challenged in it. I remember once going up to the local bluebell woods and finding diggers there and we were horrified that they'd come to destroy this area. We climbed all over the machines tying the workmens' scarves and gloves to the digger. It was our protest, we wanted them to know that we objected to what they were doing.
Q: The illustrations really bring the characters and setting to life, what is it like having a story illustrated?
A: I really like how the loose lines of her drawings say so much; she's captured funny and tender moments so beautifully and I really admire that, the simple way of expressing a warthog and getting its little toes and nose in a few lines.
I love having my work illustrated. I think its nice to have the story broken up a bit with images and that the images can confirm the reader's imagination and support them in imagining that world in their head.
Q: What's next for Tiger? Will you write other stories about her and Willowgate House?
A: Tiger will be paying more visits to Willowgate and the second book, Tiger Days and the Midnight Foxes, is out in August. This time the children become detectives; Holly the white cat they found during Tiger's first visit goes missing and during their investigation to find her they find other things that live at Willowgate and Holly's relationship with them.
It's another opportunity for Tiger to learn about helping animals but not intruding into their lives, and about her accomplishing fresh challenges.
Q: Are you working on anything else at the moment?
A: I'm writing a story for older readers again about a snow leopard and a girl who leaves her country and goes to live in another culture. I decided to go to Bhutan where snow leopards live to research the culture and it's so different from what we have in the West. It gave me an amazing insight into Buddhism, that sense of looking only to the here and now and the interconnectedness of everything and how you have to keep doing your best, no matter what.
HARRY AND HOPE
PUBLISHED BY HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN'S BOOKS
MARCH 2015
Sarah Lean's HARRY AND HOPE is a warm and perceptive exploration of friendship and family as a girl called Hope tries to mend what has been broken in her life with the help of a donkey, Harry.
Lean has developed her reputation writing about children facing and overcoming difficult challenges with the help of distinctive animal friends. In her latest story, Hope and her donkey Harry are heartbroken when Frank, Hope's mother's boyfriend, leaves to go travelling. With Harry's help, Hope builds a new relationship with her mother and together, they work to find a permanent place for Harry within the local community.
We asked Sarah Lean to tell us more about her writing.
Q: How did you come into writing for children?
A: My first book, A Dog Called Homeless, was published in 2012 and since then I've had five more books published, which is very exciting. It only feels like five minutes since my first book came out. It sounds a lot but because I don't have another job, I can be quite kind to myself in terms of my writing schedule and tell myself that some days I just have to not write.
Before writing for children, I trained for two years to be a teacher through school-centred training, so I did my NQT year there as well and it was a really hard job. I don't think I have ever felt so responsible and yet so out of my depth at the same time. It's not that I wasn't doing okay but it took too much from me.
But I had enjoyed studying for my degree, fairly late in life, and after two years of teaching, I decided to leave and to complete the final module I had to do for my MA in Creative and Critical Writing at Winchester University. By that point, the only thing left that I hadn't done was writing for children. I wrote three chapters of a story and the tutor said it was publishable and that I should finish it - that later became A Dog Called Homeless.
I had always wanted to do something working with children and I've ended up doing so and my time spent in the classroom was a very valuable part of that. I do quite a few school events now and feel very lucky that I still get to interact with children, although in a very different way.
Q: Why do animals tend to feature so strongly in your books?
A: It began with my first book, A Dog Called Homeless. I think I use animals in a lot of my stories to bring out the qualities of the child I'm writing about, the animal helps them to triumph over something, to find out who they are, and it's the relationship with the animal that does it.
My stories always begin with the characters, then the situation and I keep writing and writing until I know where it is going. The animal is the trigger for how to manoevre the changes.
In A Dog Called Homeless, there was no dog to start with and I had no intention of writing about a donkey in Harry and Hope, but Harry just appeared with Frank and I wondered what that was all about. I suppose your mind just produces something that is a useful metaphor in the form of the animal for the world you're describing.
It's hard to put your finger on why you're drawn to certain things to write about and why I use the animals I include in my stories, but I was always drawn to stories about animals, horses or dogs. I used to read everything about animals, their behaviour and I'd always be picking up wildlife magazines rather than fashion magazines.
Q: Did you have any pets as a child that helped you understand that bond between children and their pets?
I wasn't allowed to have a pet but we had a stray cat, a Siamese, that decided to live with us. I was eight or nine when the cat first came. It appeared every Saturday after our ballet class, I think to share our breakfast, and that expanded to coming several times a week.
Eventually I followed her and found out where she lived. We were about to go on a family holiday to Cornwall and I didn't want to go without her. My dad spoke to the family that owned her and I don't know what he said but he came back and told me, 'she's yours' and so the cat came to Cornwall with us and stayed in a caravan with the family. As far as I was concerned, we belonged together and she was a special animal in my life.
That time in my life was a crucial point for me, children weren't nice to me at school and this cat helped provide a strong foundation for me. It was important for me to return home and find this stray cat waiting for me and without having that relationship, that friendship, I would have found things a struggle.
Children at that age are still trying to work out who they are and how they fit in and what you don't get from an animal is a whole load of judgement, there's nothing fighting back.
So I have a strong feeling about children and animals, and going through a difficult time during that transition from primary to secondary school when you're trying to work out who you are.
Q: The mother / daughter relationship is often portrayed as a good one in children's literature, what made you want to explore a relationship that needed fixing?
A: Mother and daughter relationships are often okay in children's literature but in this story, the mother is slightly selfish and very self-absorbed in pursuing her own happiness in life. She has a boyfriend, Frank, who her daughter Hope is very close to but eventually, he leaves. I wondered about that. What happens when a young person has grown up around a person who has no legal tie to them, what happens when they are gone? Who will they turn to?
To me it's so important that children have stability, that they have something that feels stable; you are growing and changing and finding out who you are, and parents are like a kind of 'white wall' against which you can measure those changes, but what if your parents aren't there?
I wanted to explore how Frank's going would help Hope and her mother reform their relationship and what would make the mother wake up and see that she has a job to do and that she should have been doing it all along.
Q: Dialogue is really important in your books generally, and it is a strong theme in this story. How difficult is it to write?
A: I'm really interested in language and how people communicate, how by the time words are out of our mouths we say it's not what we mean. But there are a lot of clues in how people say things, how they look when they are speaking, that we miss if we're not actually looking at the person who is talking. Parents can be so busy getting the dinner on that they don't actually hear what is going on.
Hope thinks very carefully about what she says, she tries hard to say what she wants, and her mother starts to realise that there is something being said and that she's not hearing it. Through the girl's relationship with the donkey, the mother sees what she hasn't done for her daughter.
In my earlier novel, A Dog Called Homeless, I wanted to look at silence and what effect that would have when someone decides to stop talking.
Sometimes writing dialogue comes really easily but most of the time, I have to write and re-write it until I get it right. I also speak it aloud to make sure it sounds like it has been spoken.
Q: Why is Harry and Hope set in France?
A: I set it near somewhere that we had stayed; you could see the Pyrenees from the house and it made me realise that I felt very safe being surrounded by these very strong mountains. I decided to get my characters out of England, Hope doesn't have anywhere fixed and permanent and she constantly looks towards the mountains, these things that are fixed.
Q: How much research did you need to do into Harry the donkey's background, as an ill-treated animal in India?
A: I went to the Donkey Sanctuary in Devon to find out more about where Harry came from and donkey behaviours. While I was there I happened to meet with their international teams and found out more about the work they do on the ground and how they introduce measures to encourage people to look after the health of their animals.
I also spoke to the team from India and talked to them about about their work there. Donkeys have a different value in their system and I needed to understand that, and also to find out how I could bring a donkey from India to France!
Q: Can you give us any writing tips for young people who want to write a story about an animal?
A: I think it's about building a strong character and to do that, you highlight all the things that stand out about that animal - the way they do something, or funny behaviour, or strange qualities.
It's not about describing that animal; you need to see the animal in action in the story to understand its character. Choose something you really love and are interested in and do some research and find out some facts and watch videos of them on wildlife programmes, if you need to, so you feel you have experience of them.
Q: Where do you write and do you have a favourite out of the books you've written?
A: I think of all my books, the one that stands out for me is probably A Dog Called Homeless, it's my favourite for so many reasons and because I totally get Cally Fisher, but I have enjoyed writing all my books.
I write in what was the dining room but is now my room, it's like a little cave in the middle of the house. I like it when it's quiet and there's no one in the house to disturb me.
At the moment I'm working on a series for younger readers, it's still at the planning stages, and I'm working on another novel that is in the same vein as this.
Q: What is your favourite escape from writing?
A: Walking with the dogs! I live in a nice area so it's good to get out into it. We have two dogs we call the terriorists, they are a sort of mixture of terriors and something else. They are called Harry and Coco and they are very naughty. Harry sort of inspired the character Homeless and Coco, in a way, inspired Jack Pepper.
The Sand Dog
The Secret Cat (Tiger Days, Book 1)
Harry and Hope
Hero
