Sue Monroe
About Author
Sue Monroe has worked as a television and radio presenter on a variety of children's programmes, including 'Playdays' GMTV kids but is best known for her work as the programme links presenter on BBC's 'Cbeebies'.
Interview
THE MAGNIFICENT MOON HARE
PUBLISHED BY EGMONT PRESS
APRIL 2012
Author Sue Monroe was previously a television presenter on CBeebies, as well as working on other children's television channels. Being in television has, she says, helped her to really understand her readers, while script writing has stood her in good stead for writing dialogue as an author.
She says, "I like writing dialogue, which helps to keep the story moving, and humour. Humour and character are really important in keeping children reading.
"I have read a lot of children's books with a lot of description but I have always loved a good character and a book that is funny."
As a child, Monroe would always look for the hare in the moon, rather than the man in the moon, and as she began to think about the character for this story, she had an immediate sense of what he'd be like. The Moon Hare will feature as the main character in the subsequent books in the series.
"Children like the Moon Hare because hes naughty (without being bad) and he can be outrageous, but there's no malice there, hes just out for fun," says Monroe. "He's also very powerful, he's a magical creature so making him powerful, and he's funny."
She wanted a "feisty" princess for the story, not one who needs rescuing, and created PJ Petulant, a badly-behaved princess who meets her match in the Moon Hare.
She also needed a dragon in the story, Sandra (who is a boy). "He was only going to appear in one story and the princess would get bored of him and off he'd go, but he has so much potential to be badly behaved that I kept him," says Monroe.
She adds, "He's out for himself and that's very child-like behaviour the horrible big brother. He and PJ don't like each other and he only stops himself from eating her because he knows he'd get into trouble. You need him to balance the other characters."
The story is set in a medieval castle but in modern times they have wheelie bins outside and flat screen TV's, a mix of eras that children find easy to accept.
There is a good helping of jeopardy in the book PJ's dad, the King, is kidnapped and about to have his head cut off so PJ, the Moon Hare and Sandra have to go and rescue him.
"Sometimes children's television can be a bit dumbed down and safe but children need to explore the world as well and a bit of danger keeps the story going," Monroe explains.
Monroe was very involved in choosing the illustrator of the stories. "I saw some beautiful work from a number of illustrators but they didn't look like how I imagined the characters, I wanted them to be a bit untidy and messy and Birgitta Sif, the illustrator we chose, has a quirky way of looking at things which I liked."
Monroe writes some of the text in fonts Moon Hare, PJ and Sandra all have their own fonts. "I think they are quite expressive. When the Moon Hare gets excited it shows in the fonts, or when Queen Elsie loses her temper I give her a dark and scratchy font and children like that. It enlivens the page and makes it more animated," Monroe explains.
She adds, "I think illustrations on the page is really important for children - look how much they enjoy comics. I loved comics as a child, Beano was a big part of my life and so it is in my son's life."
Book 2 is written, there are pirates in it and an uncle appears who is a pirate and in trouble. "They have to try to help him out and rescue him or they will lose the castle," Monroe says. "Moon Hare loves the idea of pirates and wants to be one but a Moon Hare with a sword is not a good thing...."
