Arabella’s on an alphabet adventure

Get The AJN Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Suzy Zail used to be a lawyer. But writing was always her calling. When her father was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and given six months to live, she realised life was too short to be doing something she wasn’t passionate about, so she quit.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do; I just knew I wanted to spend time getting to know my dad,” Zail told The AJN.

Soon after his diagnosis, Zail’s father started telling the family his Holocaust story. It was a tale he had buried to start a new life in Australia. Zail realised that while it was a difficult story to hear, it was necessary.

“It was time to look back, not to scare us, but to strengthen us. To make sure we’d never be victims of hate, or bullies,” she said.

The six months that her father was given turned into five years, and Zail was able to dive deeper into his story.

“I got to ask him questions, uncomfortable questions a daughter wouldn’t normally ask her father, like what scares you, what do you dream about at night. Because we didn’t have a tomorrow, I had to ask now,” she explained.

“There was no question he wouldn’t answer and when he could no longer speak and was forced to type his thoughts into a keyboard that spoke for him, he continued to answer my questions – questions that changed our relationship.”

The conversations turned into a book, The Tattooed Flower. It signalled the end of Zail’s law career and the beginning of her writing life.

“I loved listening to the details of other people’s lives and the challenge of reconstructing those lives on paper, so I kept writing, and eventually found my way to young adult novels.”

Now, Zail has now returned to her picture-book roots with Arabella’s Alphabet Adventure, explaining it was one of the first things she wrote when she went back to university after her father passed away.

“My father had just died and my world, at the time, was the children’s section of our local library. I had small children who devoured books and it was our favourite place to hang out,” she said.

“I’d read them stories and we’d all escape for a while, so it’s not surprising that the picture book is set in a library.”

The story was shelved while Zail concentrated on writing her other books including The Tattooed Flower.

“It was so nice to return to what ignited my love of words – the picture book – and work with an illustrator and engage with young children. It’s a great genre and I loved the challenge of whittling my words down to the ones that really counted and conveying big ideas in just a few hundred words,” she said.

“It’s harder than it looks because picture books are read over and over and out loud. Read anything that often and you’ll see every flaw.”

Arabella’s Alphabet Adventure is about a book who escapes the library, searching for something more. What the book doesn’t understand though, is that home and belonging is much closer than she thinks.

“It’s about the power of words and a homage to libraries, but it’s also about believing that you’re enough,” Zail explained.

“Arabella forgets she is special. She longs for words and paragraphs. She wants to be adored by adults.

“We so often forget to be grateful for what we have, especially with the pervasiveness of social media and the constant pull to compare ourselves to people whose lives look shinier.

“Arabella’s Alphabet Adventure is a gentle reminder to love ourselves and those around us. To learn to live in the moment and find happiness in the things we already have.”

Arabella’s Alphabet Adventure is published by Walker Books, $25.99 (rrp)