Writing a Children's Book

Lesson 6: Writing the Middle.

Supplement. Anatomy of a Specific RS Novel.

“Selka”, by Edward E.B. Cracker is a RS novel intended for readers in Year Seven/ Junior High. It is part of the “Momentum Plus” series. It has seven chapters and 32 pages, and is just over 4,000 words. It has coloured illustrations (see below) on most pages.

Chapter 1, “Riding White Horses”, begins on Page 5. The story is told in the first person by Mari Gordon, a lighthouse keeper’s daughter on the (fictitious) Atland Islands. This is a past tense narrative. Mari speaks of being eleven, and of her Aunt Nesta persuading her father to send her to school on the mainland. Mari recalls that she didn’t want to leave her best friend, Selka.

Nesta arrives, and Mari goes to the bay to say goodbye. Selka arrives “splashing through the wavelets”. Mari can’t bring herself to tell Selka she’s leaving, so she agrees to go riding. Selka calls the white horses, and the girls go for an exhilarating gallop along the shore.

At “the mers’ cove”, Nerissa, one of the merpeople, says “the Moncrief” (the ferry captain) has told her Mari is leaving. This is the first definite clue that Mari’s friends are not human.

Selka is upset, and the girls swap pendants before they part. Selka says; “Remember me, Mari”, and Mari promises to return for a final farewell.

At the end of P.9. Selka, revealed as a selkie girl, resumes her seal shape and goes back to the sea.

The chapter is 750 words long. It introduces setting, protagonist, and seven other characters, including four non-humans and one ferry captain with “sea sight”. It sets up Mari’s childhood existence, and lays the ground for her departure. The story begins at a time of change.

Chapter 2, “Glenfair”. A storm forces the ferry to leave early, so Mari misses seeing Selka. The ferry captain, Alan Moncrief, advises Mari not to speak of island things. “Folk won’t understand”. Mari describes her new school, her teacher, Ms O’Neill, and her friendship with local children. The islands seem far away.

The ferry journey makes a division between Mari’s worlds.

Chapter 3, “Spanish Silver”. P.14. A history lesson. Ms O’Neill, a diver, shows some Spanish coins from a wreck. Mari recognises one, a half Reale, from the pendant Selka gave her. She shows Ms O’Neill and says she acquired it “down by the sea caves”. Ms O’Neill schedules a dive at the Atland Islands. Mari is disturbed at the idea of her two worlds – home and school – meeting.

The history is lightly sketched but correct, and Mari (and the reader) learns to pronounce “Reale” properly. Mari is motivated by a wish to impress her teacher, but is wise enough to skirt the issue of how she acquired the coin-pendant.

Chapter 4, “Only a Seal”. P.17. Back on the island, Ms O’Neill and Mari discuss the pros and cons of island life. Mari learns that the teacher and her friends are making a film. At the bottom of P.19, Ms O’Neill thinks she has seen someone in the sea, but Mari responds that it is “only a seal”. She can’t explain Selka to Ms O’Neill, and is worried about how simple Selka would seem. She resolves to see Selka “tomorrow”, but a storm prevents this.

This chapter shows Mari’s problem with her colliding worlds. This reflects the problem some people have when they hesitate to introduce their unsophisticated childhood friends to later acquaintances.

Chapter 5, “Treasure Hunt”. P. 21. Mari goes treasure hunting with the divers, and learns a little about wreck-diving. The students wish for a spectacular find to end their film. Selka surfaces and “put on human form”, but Mari distracts Ms O’Neill’s attention. She talks loudly to drown the sound of Selka’s voice.

Chapter 6, “Unreality”, opens on Page 25. Mari has the brilliant idea of asking Selka to show her a wreck for the divers to “find”. Mari finds a hurt and reproachful Selka, and explains that she can’t let her meet Ms O’Neill. She asks Selka about a wreck, but Selka doesn’t understand about films. Mari bursts out that she’s “so stupid”, and “only a seal”. Selka dives under the water. Mari tries to swim back to the shore, but finds the sea inhospitable.

On P. 28, Mari says she looked for Selka during the next week, but never saw her, or the mers, or the white horses. She does find the pendant she gave to Selka abandoned on the rocks. She wonders if Selka was ever real.

Chapter 7, “Sea-sight”, begins on P. 29. Mari is more disappointed than Ms O’Neill about the lack of treasure. Ms O’Neill says that the hunt is as good as the finds, and returns Mari’s half Reale pendant. Unable to find Selka or the other sea folk, Mari begs Alan Moncrief for help. He tells her that sea-sight is fragile, and reminds her that most people manage well enough without it.

Knowing she has ruined things, Mari goes to the bay and makes her apologies “blind”. A seal swims to the rocks, and Mari finally understands that Selka and the others need people to define them, so she makes an effort of will… and sees Selka take on human form. “You’ll go away again”, says Selka, and Mari agrees- but promises she will always come back.

“Selka” is a very short book, but the theme and plot reflects the SCB level of the text. Readers will learn something of history, legend, faith, treasure-hunting, friendship and obligation. They will learn that friendship is fragile, and that friends can’t be pushed aside and then taken up when it suits.

The plot, theme and characters would have fitted a trade SCB, but it’s interesting to speculate on whether greater length would have strengthened or weakened the story.

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