Ruby Flew Too!

Authors are often asked where they get the ideas for their stories. In my case, I often come up with what I consider to be a good title and then I try to think of a story that will go with it. And that is how this story came about.

We have a lake near our house that I occasionally jog around in the mornings. At the time that this story was written, there was a swan’s nest among the reeds at one end of the lake and that gave me the idea for the book’s title Once Upon a Time, Upon a Nest (the book was retitled for the US and the UK paperback editions). I substituted ducks for swans and the story grew from there.

Although the book is centred on Ruby, the smallest of five ducklings, the only speaking characters are her parents, so we see much of the story from their point of view. Father Duck is anxious about Ruby who is small and slow to develop compared with her four larger siblings. But Mother Duck reassures him that Ruby will flourish – “in her own time.”

I know that many parents have had similar anxieties about their child’s development. So, while this book is principally for children, I hope that the story’s reassuring message will strike a chord with parents as well. Any parent needing additional reassurance might like to know that even the greatest of achievers can have a slow start. In a biography written by Einstein’s sister, Maja, she informs us that her brother “developed slowly in childhood, and he had such difficulty with language that those around him feared he would never learn to speak.”*

I can remember feeling unusually satisfied with the story when I’d finished it. Although the text was much shorter and the plot was far simpler than most of my picture books, it felt right and I imagined that I would have little trouble getting it published. However this was not the case. The first publisher I showed it to turned it down on the basis that, although it had a nice feel, the plot was far too simple and “would need too many changes made to it before it would begin to work”. Other publishers misinterpreted it as a re-telling of the Ugly Duckling and when I explained that it wasn’t, suggested that I should re-write it as such, which I was unwilling to do. Almost two years later, having been turned down by a dozen other publishers, Macmillan enthusiastically accepted the story. And – despite the first publisher’s comments – the only change they asked me to make was to the names of Ruby’s brothers, who were originally called Ronald and Robert.

It took several months to find a suitable illustrator. There are only seven characters in the story and all of them are ducks, five of which needed to be shown at various stages of development, from duckling through to adult. So we needed someone who could draw ducks that would be recognisable as individual characters. This is not simple and several illustrators were considered before settling upon Rebecca Harry. Rebecca’s characters are instantly appealing, and I think that her illustrations have a warmth and simplicity that perfectly compliments the text.

A good illustrator extends the story with their illustrations and this book provides an excellent example of this. Although the text stated that Ruby returns to her parents at the end of the story, it was Rebecca’s idea to show Ruby with a young family of her own on the final spread. This brings the story full circle and makes the conclusion far more satisfying.

* It’s ironic then that one of the most popular brands of infant development products goes by the name of Baby Einstein!