Interview of Brooke Scobie by Haylee Hackenberg
Brooke Scobie is a force. Collaborative, passionate and so very talented, if Brooke makes it, you should run to it. Her debut series, Yarn Quest, is a breathtaking fantasy-adventure trilogy for kids aged 8 and over.
Where did the idea for Yarn Quest come from?
It all started in 2021 when I was working for a First Nations creative start-up with my illustrator Jade Goodwin. We were looking for a way to celebrate National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day, which is celebrated on the 4th of August every year. That year Jade had the brilliant idea to do a special one-off podcast episode featuring stories by and for kids. We brainstormed and came up with the name Yarn Quest. 20 Episodes later, we accidentally created a whole podcast series! Jade and I loved working with kids, creating stories with them and for them, so we decided we wanted to write our own stories together. I developed the idea of a Story Realm, and an adventure series featuring my kiddo Sibyl (now 8) and Jade’s niblings Tane (now 11) and P (now 12). We put together a pitch and went together to Penguin who loved the idea. It started out that we wished to do a series, and Penguin loved the first manuscript so much that we got the opportunity to write three whole books!
Was it always going to be fantasy?
Yes, always. I don’t think I will ever write anything else. I have always loved fantasy, and all things magic in the books I read – so of course I wanted to write in that genre as well.
What kind of books did you gravitate to as a kid?
The books I will always credit as changing my life and turning me into someone who dreamed of writing my own is the series Everworld by K.A. Applegate. She’s like the not-evil J.K. Rowling. I mean that, and she’s actually a good writer! I think I was 13 when I discovered the series, in 2001 and I read all 12 books over those summer holidays. I was never the same. For its time it was inclusive, well-researched (as far as I could tell as a kid), and wildly fantastical. As an adult I knew one day I wanted to write books that gave other kids that same feeling, that stories are magic and that they can write their own. My mum has always been a massive Stephen King fan too, so fantasy fiction has always been a staple in our house.
When I read about the premise, something that really excited me was the setting. How does the bush setting impact and/or mirror the story?
Country is its own character in the series, that’s how I see it anyway. Country teaches the kids lessons, protects them, and brings new stories. Readers will get to experience Country in both our world based here in so-called Australia, and in the Story Realm where a magical version of this land exists. As humans, but especially as Blak kids (as all the kids in the story are), Country is our mother, teacher and resting place. This series is as much a love letter to my kids as it is to Country. I hope young readers take a love for Country from the stories, as well as a love for reading.
Why are own voices stories important for kids, in particular?
Blak kids need to see themselves in all kinds of stories, not just ones deemed ‘Aboriginal stories’. They need to see themselves having adventures, just like the white American kids they might see in movies. In terms of ‘own voice’ stories, kids know authenticity when they see it. Stories written about them by people with no understanding of how we move through the world as First Nations people are frankly quite obvious. Going even further though, these stories are inspired by and in some ways co-written by Sibyl, P and Tane. My kid was giving me ideas every second day, some of them were great (others not so much, but appreciated nonetheless). P’s story, which is book two, was heavily influenced by what they wanted it to be about. When my sistergirl Tully was visiting with the kids, I sat down with P and said ‘If I was writing a story where you are the hero what would you want the lesson to be’ and they said (without hesitation) ‘Greed’. So The Great River Rescue was born. There also wouldn’t be half as many fart jokes in the series if that wasn’t true to life for Tane. He is, as my daughter calls him, ‘the king of funniness’.
Something important I think that is touched on in book two is P’s gender identity. They don’t feature much in book one and still go by their birth name and old pronouns. I asked P’s permission to leave book one as is, so we could tell their story of self-discovery as a part of their hero’s journey. I wanted to normalise the experience of kids learning who they truly are, it’s not a big traumatic event – it just is. Though I myself don’t identify with the gender expectations the world has of me, that scene wasn’t something I could’ve written with authenticity without P’s advice and approval. I spent so long on those few paragraphs, introducing P as their true self and having Sibyl experience it (as she did in our real life) as just ‘normal’. When it was completed, I sent it over to P to make sure they felt safe and accurately represented. They had big joyful emotions around the scene, and I knew I had done them justice. This is the power of ‘own voices’, P gets to see themselves as their true self, having an amazing adventure.
Aside from Yarn Quest, what are the books you would like to see on shelves?
More stories where the lead characters are First Nations (of any continent, and written by us), but the story doesn’t revolve around our trauma or solely our identity. Love stories with Blak leads, like Melanie Saward’s Love Unleashed! Right now I am only reading books by Women of Colour, no more old dead (or alive for that matter) white guys. Every new book Nnedi Okorafor writes is a gift for humanity, the whole genre of African Futurism is amazing.
And most of all I want to see more active and REAL collaboration. Writers, we don’t write in vacuums. Everything you have ever created was inspired by every place you’ve been, every person you’ve met and every experience you’ve had. The story isn’t your baby, it’s the whole community’s baby! More co-authoring, less last-minute sensitivity readers. If you’re writing a story and parts of it are outside your lived experience, collaborate with someone who is from that community. Share the joy of storytelling, reject the capitalistic notion of competition and join forces! *end rant*
What’s next for you as a writer?
I think I have a YA fantasy series in me, something that centres around the importance of collectivism in liberation. Stories are such an important part of the revolution against fascism, colonialism and tyranny in general – and the future lies with young people, so I’ll write it for them.
