Creator Peter van Wermeskerken is a most fascinating character. His first e book, Double Agent, is a memoir of his time within the Secret Service. If one other author might make a extra profound transition in his second e book, you’d have to point out me. That’s as a result of van Wermekerken’s subsequent enterprise is the delightfully entertaining and academic Mike & Alex collection for kids ages six and up — together with the characters’ largest journey but, World Cruise by Whale.
Kids’s books, before everything, says van Wermeskerken, must be enjoyable. Hearken to a few of the creator’s different ideas on writing, on youngsters and diverse themes in our world.
Q: In World Cruise by Whale, what impressed you to create Mike and Alex as the primary characters, a big rabbit and a wild boar? How do these animals mirror the themes of your tales?
A: The essential thought for Mike and Alex happened throughout automobile rides for the advertising of Double Agent, my first e book, an autobiography about my life as, nicely, a double agent. My spouse Marga advised concepts, and I crammed in. Mike was rapidly discovered. Kids and rabbits match collectively in a narrative.
The second animal must be a manageable dimension. As a result of I’m Dutch, the animals have been “born” within the Netherlands. Fairly just a few pigs additionally stay in our solely forest, so the selection was straightforward. Then, the distinction in dimension needed to be bridged. Then, they needed to develop larger than typical. That’s the place my previous on the farm got here in helpful. Pigs get a ground to develop nicely. So Mike and Alex needed to get that, too (leftovers from the sow who needs to stay a slim woman).
Q: The e book combines schooling with leisure, particularly round environmental issues. How do you steadiness instructing youngsters about necessary matters comparable to air pollution and maintaining the story enjoyable for younger readers?
A: Writing a youngsters’s e book ought to, before everything, be enjoyable for the kids in your goal group. I’m aiming for the age group from 6 years outdated. They’re already studying or can learn. The e book’s structure is tailor-made to them, together with font and line spacing.
A baby must also study one thing from it “playfully.” That’s the reason you describe the habits of the animals; that’s the reason the animals whisper to the oldest or the chairman. The animals in my books have good manners.
Additionally deliberate is that the chairman of the whales has a speech obstacle: he can not pronounce the “O.” That’s the reason there’s a sprint or an asterisk all over the place the place an “o” must be in his quotes. That’s to study to learn what must be there and look past your nostril when studying. So you will need to listen when studying, not rapidly studying what you assume is there. That’s the reason that is used at two faculties within the Netherlands when studying aloud in school. On this approach, you combine all types of capabilities of a e book, and a very good and thrilling story is paramount.
With regards to the atmosphere or local weather, I’m not a fanatic. On Saturdays, I used to should rake the yard on the farm. Once I see how folks deal with their atmosphere and depart all types of garbage mendacity round, I see that with dismay.
Q: Within the story, Mike and Alex confront whalers and ocean air pollution. What message do you hope younger readers will take away about their position in defending the atmosphere?
A: Mike and Alex are in Whale Wally’s “swimming lodge” after they hear that the whalers have come to the South Pole to kill whales. They’ve simply saved their host, so they are going to plan to do one thing in regards to the whalers. Then you must take into consideration how large the most important whales are. So then you concentrate on easy methods to get these ships away. You mix that with the chilly and the icebergs, the fjords. You look the place the southernmost, coldest spot is the place there may be water. Nicely, that’s the place the whales push the ships. That may all be defined.
The story will get a bit harsh when the whales get very indignant (very human) when a lifeless whale falls from a ship into the ocean. On this story, I need youngsters to appreciate that animals have emotions. They react similar to folks “with the identical human needs and the identical human methods.” Most individuals favor to stay in a neat atmosphere. Nicely, that additionally applies to the animals. That’s the reason Mike and Alex clear the stomachs of the whales and dump the waste on their island, MandA, neatly in a single place.
Q: Wally the Whale affords a luxurious world cruise out of gratitude. Are you able to inform us extra about how you employ this journey to introduce completely different world places and animal behaviors in a approach that engages younger readers?
A: This is among the most enjoyable issues within the story collection. Guide 1 offers with the Netherlands. In e book 2, which has but to be written, the 2 nice gossips within the collection, Loui Fox and Matt Dol-Phin, meet on the southern pier of the port of Rotterdam, the biggest port in Europe. There, they meet each third full moon and typically elsewhere.
If one thing occurs someplace on the earth within the tales, I convey out a map so readers can see the place it’s. That’s the reason I’ve been utilizing a globe since e book 4, and there are maps of the South Pole, the Arabian Sea, the China Sea, and the realm round San Francisco.
Within the subsequent e book, Alaska would be the central focus as a result of the polar bears ask for extra snow and ice. Then, you will notice that space and its environment on maps. In East Africa, the animals undergo from a Nice Drought. Someplace, I’m nonetheless figuring out the place that can be. There can be a significant forest fireplace, a major oil accident elsewhere and, elsewhere once more, the fish will all of a sudden disappear from the ocean.
Guess what’s inflicting that? The limitation is that Wally has to have the ability to get there to place Mike and Alex on land. The animals on land make their wants identified to dolphins, and father Matt Dol-Phin and his household are there surprisingly typically. By means of the gossip amongst dolphins, Matt nearly at all times is aware of the place Wally is. On this approach, I can let Wally swim in all corners of the oceans and seas.
Q: What position does youngsters’s literature play in shaping the following era’s understanding of environmental accountability and animal empathy?
A: I need to make a small contribution in order that new generations will present extra accountability for our earth and dwelling atmosphere.
World Cruise by Whale is offered for buy right here.
RELATED POSTS:
Two Unlikely Heroes Embark on a Whale-Sized Journey to Save the Planet
About Peter van Wermeskerken:
Peter van Wermeskerken (alias Pete Van Kerk), born on December 31, 1939, overcame epilepsy to develop into a celebrated journalist and creator. After graduating from the Larger Agricultural Faculty in Utrecht in 1960, he adopted his father into journalism, ultimately becoming a member of AD, the place he gained worldwide recognition as a number one oil reporter.Peter’s writing profession started with The Years 90 (1988), a bestseller that includes predictions by high Dutch CEOs. His second e book, Double Agent (2013), detailed his time as a Dutch secret service operative and earned vital reward. After shedding his spouse in 2014, Peter remarried and returned to writing, producing an erotic novel, a satire on aged care, and new installments of his environmentally targeted youngsters’s collection Mike & Alex. The newest e book, releasing in summer time 2024, follows the characters on a whale rescue and ocean cleanup, incomes reward for its originality and kid-friendly design.