Peek inside The Diary of Wiska Wildflower with its creator, Harriet Muncaster

The Diary of Wiska Wildflower: The New School (From the creator of Isadora Moon, Harriet Muncaster)

About Author

Harriet Muncaster - creator of Isadora Moon - talks about the inspiration behind her new series for younger readers, The Diary of Wiska Wildflower.

Harriet studied Illustration at the Norwich University College of Art, and completed a Master's Degree in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University.

As well as Isadora Moon, Harriet has created the Mirabelle and Emerald series of young reader books and the middle-grade Victoria Stitch series, published by Oxford University Press.

Interview

October 2025

Peek inside The Diary of Wiska Wildflower with its creator, Harriet Muncaster

ReadingZone caught up with Harriet Muncaster, author of the bestselling Isadora Moon series, to find out about her new series, The Diary of Wiska Wildflower: The New School (OUP), and the miniature world of the Wisklings!

We discover how Harriet's love of miniature worlds, hot chocolate and things that sparkle helped inspire Wiskling world, and how little Wiska Wildflower started life. Harriet also talks about her love of diaries and how The Diary of Wiska Wildflower can be used to inspire children to create their own miniature worlds - and even start their own diaries!

5* Review "You are immersed in the world of Wiskling Wood from the very moment that you open this memorising book."

"Wiska is tiny, only nine and a half centimeters tall - all Wisklings are tiny, and that's because I love miniature things and so I wanted to create a whole world in miniature."

Q&A with Harriet Muncaster: The Diary of Wiska Wildflower - The New School

"I loved to have a miniature 'friend' that I would keep in my pocket (often a Sylvanian Family or similar) and take on adventures
(just like Wiska does too!) and I would write diaries for these little characters!"

1. What is The Diary of Wiska Wildflower series, and the first book, The New School, about?

The Diary of Wiska Wildflower is about a little wiskling who has just moved from one side of Wiskling Wood to the other and is starting a new school in a new district. She is missing her best friend, Luna from her old school in Acornia and she is nervous about making friends at her new school, Inkcap's Academy.

The story follows Wiska as she quickly gets to know Cleobelle and Primrose in her class, but she soon realises she has to hide parts of herself in order to be friends with them. Eventually, she realises that being her true self is what will help her find true friends!

The book is set in Wiskling Wood which is a magical place, protected from humans and animals by magic. The wisklings are all tiny (Wiska is only 9½ cm tall!) and lots of them live inside hollow tree homes. Wisklings can fly around on flowers ('blooms!') and leaves and they are also born from crystals! They have pointed ears, antennae that can spark, black-tipped noses and SUPER-long eyelashes!

"I love nature and sparkly things, crystals and flowers and hot chocolate and tiny things, and I basically smooshed all this together to create a world that I love being in. That's a fun activity you can do as well."

2. You talk about Wiska's creative spark in the story - what makes you excited to create things, and what do you enjoy creating?

I love creating worlds - especially miniature ones! And I also love having a character that I love to create stories for and put in different situations. Wiska actually started as a little sketch diary a few years ago. I wanted a little wiskling 'buddy' who I could draw daily, reflecting the activities that I was doing. If I went for hot chocolate, I would draw Wiska having hot chocolate (maybe peering into a giant cup!) Or, if I was going to London that day, I might draw her holding a giant train ticket. She was kind of like my little wiskling friend and I drew her a lot!

Of course, then I started really wanting to give her a story of her own and put her in a book! I think it's cool that The Diary of Wiska Wildflower ended up being written in diary format seeing as she actually started out as MY own little personal sketch diary!

"Wiska is now off to Inkcap's Academy and she's nervous about making friends."

3. Why did you decide to set the scene in so much detail about Wisklings and their world at the start of the book?

Wiskling Wood is a world I created a long time ago so it is very rich and deep inside my head. I have also already written three middle-grade novels (my Victoria Stitch trilogy), which are also set in Wiskling Wood, so the world and the wisklings were already very solidly developed before I started writing The Diary of Wiska Wildflower.

The Victoria Stitch stories go deeper and darker than the Wiska stories and the way the wiskling world works is already set up in those books. So I was working within the parameters of that. That's why in Wiska Wildflower, there are many details and annotated pages about how things function inside Wiskling Wood!

Now it's time to enjoy a short reading from The Diary of Wiska Wildflower: The New School

4. Why did you decide to write it in a diary format? Did you keep a diary as a child with lots of drawings, like Wiska?

I did keep lots of different diaries throughout my childhood and I always say to children that writing a diary is a really good way to practise regular writing! I used to put lots of drawings and decorations into my diaries and sometimes I would even keep diaries for my toys. I loved to have a miniature 'friend' that I would keep in my pocket (often a Sylvanian Family or similar) and take on adventures (just like Wiska does too!) and I would write diaries for these little characters!

Writing the diary of Wiska Wildflower in diary format actually happened by accident! I was struggling to find the exact story for her and I had already written two full 18k word manuscripts that I had discarded. The common theme running through these two stories was that Wiska was very artistic and creative and that she LOVED writing and drawing in her sketchbook/diary. In the end I started to think 'why not just write the book from the perspective of inside her diary?' Something clicked and everything fell into place.

I have already written book two, where we will get a closer look at the Crystal Cave (where wisklings are born!) which was so much fun to write! I am in the middle of illustrating that now and I hope there will be lots more Wiska books after that!

Creative Challenge
How do you suggest children start creating their own journal, perhaps a little like Wiska's diary?

Its always fun to collect bits and bobs to put in a diary, or maybe you could create your own little avatar/alter ego to put in your diary like I did with Wiska? You can have them mirroring your own life with the things that you do but maybe with a fantastical spin on it?

Writing a diary is great because it's often a private thing which means that you don't have to worry about making mistakes because no one is ever supposed to read it! So you can be completely free! And it's great writing practice!

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