Maybe You Might
Maybe You Might is a picture book written by me and illustrated by Anna Cunha, published by Lantana. Order here: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/maybe-you-might/9781913747862
It is a hopeful environmental fable told in rhyming text. In a world devestated by climate change, a young girl finds a single seed and, against the odds, gradually restores her ecosystem.
Kirkus starred review says: “Narrated in beautiful, uplifting, lyrical verse by the child, this lovely British import is about the glorious fulfillment of hope and supports the idea that one small person might change the world…This gorgeous book shimmers with hope and possibilities.”
I had the idea for the book back in 2019 when I was feeling very despairing about the future of the planet (as I still am). I was walking home one day when my bike had a flat tyre and started imagining a story where devastating climate change had already happened, and where a little girl found a way to restore the ecosystem. I wrote the first lines in the bike repair shop.
I originally planned to illustrate it myself, unsurprisingly. But when I submitted it to publishers, I got an offer from Lantana for my words, but with one of their existing illustrators. Happily, the pictures by Anna Cunha are beautiful. More dreamy and painterly than mine would have been – and setting the story in her home of Brazil, which I love.
I’ve been thinking back over some of the books and other things that inspired the story:
Dr Seuss’s The Lorax still can’t be beat for environmental parables! I used to read it and cry. I wanted to start my story at the place where Lorax leaves off: “Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care…”
Of course Greta Thunberg and the many many other brave young activists of #FridaysForFuture / #youthstrikeforclimate – showing that a very small voice can make a huge difference.
The Wheel on the School by Meinert DeJong (illustrated by Maurice Sendak). An undercelebrated classic! Lina, the only girl in the village of Shora, wants a stork to nest on the school roof. Gradually the whole community comes together to make her dream a reality.
While despairing over the climate emergency, I came across the story of Sebastião and Lélia Wanick Salgado’s reforestation project in Brazil – imagine if all of us were working to restore rather than destroy the planet!
I wanted the language of the book to be very clear and simple – kind of like a folk song – I was thinking of Woody Guthrie, Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell (“they took all the trees and put them in a tree museum”).
Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin has helped me out of some low places. It’s a utopia set in a far future California – the planet has suffered many catastrophes, but humanity has rediscovered a way to live in harmony with the rest of the world.
