Paula Xiberras
I phone Libby Hathorn just as she is returning home with the children from a trip of tree climbing. Libby hastens to add the children had been doing the climbing not her!
Libby has however, been climbing the ladder of a literary life triumphantly since she was a little girl of 5 years old. Libby has always written poetry and wrote her first book as a young teacher. There are now 53 books and counting under Libby’s authorship.
Talks and workshops at Salamanca’s Writers Centre mean Libby is a regular visitor to Tasmania.
To commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Somme Libby has written her latest book, ‘A Soldier, a Dog and a Boy’, which will resonate with its intended audience of children and also with adults, particularly as we prepare for ANZAC day.
The book was inspired by Libby’s family history and the discovery of a WWI photo at the State Library of NSW depicting a returning soldier with his backpack revealing a young French orphan boy smuggled to Australia.
The book focuses on the soldier, Alberts’ dialogue with the reader as he finds a dog, aptly named Victoire, which reminds him of his own dog back home. As Libby explains dogs were often used as mascots for the diggers and a symbol of luck. Albert then encounters a young French boy, Jacques, the owner of the dog who wants Victoire back. Mirroring the sacrifice of the soldiers Jacques gives Albert leave to take his dog. There is one final twist to the story by Albert.
Libby says she has deliberately omitted any vivid portrayal of war in the book because children know what war is and don’t need to be reminded. In fact, in the book there is a comment by Albert of ‘there is no war in Australia’. The only conflict that develops in the book is one demonstrating love, not war as the two principle characters both put their cases forward for ownership of Victoire.
Libby says her illustrator Phil Lesnie has managed a ‘masterstroke’ in putting an illustration without accompanying text for the end page(something not often employed), in which he manages to convey in his drawing a satisfying conclusion to the story, where, as Libby says, the fireworks of celebration replace those of war.
A Soldier, a Dog and a Boy is out now published by Hachette Australia
