Paula Xiberras
Ilustrator Kayleen West loves Tasmania and recalls a visit 7 years ago and previous to that visiting Tasmania with her family when she was 13 years of age. Her memories of that time were doing ‘lots of drawing’ including of the beautiful scenic countryside. Kayleen says of a visit to Tasmania it’s a small area that packs in a lot’.
The drawing has never really stopped for Kayleen. It started early when as a young child she created a home-made book with pen and ink and made her way down to a publishing office near her home to sell her book. Her ingenuity saw her granted an interview but she was politely told that the style of the book was no longer what the publishers were looking for. Kayleen still has that famous book.
That passion for illustrating has seen Kayleen illustrating children’s books that aim to inspire children. One such book is ‘Celia and Nonna’ by Victoria Lane.
‘Celia and Nonna’ is a story that explores what happens when someone is affected by Alzheimers and aims to demonstrate that the severity of the condition can be lessened by the love and care of someone close who can help revisit memories.
In the book Celia is very close to her Nonna, often staying over, cooking and reading stories together.
The changes become clear when they appear in Nonna’s everyday activities, such as when Nonna leaves a pot boiling on the stove and gets locked out of her house when she goes to collect the mail but to balance Nonna’s forgetfulness we see a corresponding forgetfulness in Celia as she omits an ear and an eye on the face decorations on the cakes she makes’.
Not only does Celia’s omission demonstrate that anyone can be forgetful but that also how dementia can remove the precious memories that our eyes and ears create for us.
There are some lovely secrets hidden in Kayleen’s illustrations such as when Nonna is reading Celia a story about penguins and fairies. Celia is confusing the characters as her mind muddles into sleep. The two images of penguins and fairies are combined by Kayleen into an illustration of fairy penguins!
There are some lovely illustrations in the book right from the opening page that emphasises the close relationship between Celia and her Nonna. There is a drawing of Nonna and Celia embracing at the doorway as Celia arrives for her sleepover. This embrace is mirrored in that of a drawing of two birds in a overhanging tree and in the positioning of Celia’s sandals as entwined they fall from her feet near the door. This trio of entwinements perhaps gives strength to the idea that nothing can break Nonna and Celia’s strong bond, even when Nonna realises she needs to enter a place where she will gain support in her daily activities.
Kayleen says many children feel intimidated by homes for dementia patients and so in the story Celia begins to make her Nonna’s new home more familiar with what she does best, her drawings and in doing so helps Nonna regain some of her precious memories.
An excellent feature of the book that Kayleen points out to me is that the font is dyslexic friendly so children who are dyslexic will find the book less challenging to read. Kayleen believes more books should use this font to make reading more accessible for all children.
Another feature of the book is that the character of Celia is modelled on a real little girl who had her own health issues but who Kayleen tells me is on the road to recovery now. A lovely interactive feature of the book was the invitation of real children to provide illustrations for the book to represent the pictures Celia draws for her Nonna.
‘Celia and Nonna’ by Victoria Lane and illustrated by Kayleen West is out now published by Ford Street Publishing.
September is Alzheimers awareness month.
