Book Adventurers: Lou Kuenzler
This summer, we’re asking children – where will you go?
To become a book adventurer this summer, all children have to do is download our free make-at-home passport. Once they’ve started reading and checking places off their lists, they can cut out the stamps included in the passport pack and glue them in. We’ve left space to write on each stamp where you’ve traveled that week – whether it’s Narnia, the circus or the wild plains of Africa!
To help them and you get inspired, we’ve asked some brilliant children’s authors to tell us about the book that never failed to take them to another world when they were children. First up, we hear from children’s author Lou Kuenzler!
Silver Snaffles by Primrose Cumming
I was lucky enough to grow up on a farm and have my own pony. We lived in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor and it could be pretty remote. In the long summer holidays, a whole week might pass before I saw any other children. Because of this, I spent a lot of time talking to my pony, Flora. All day I would be with her, either out for a ride or in her stable. Flora would listen as I shared secrets or told stories (she was very generous and never interrupted or said my plots were a little far-fetched!). When I finally went inside I would often curl up to read and re-read my well-thumbed copy of Silver Snaffles by Primrose Cumming. I can still see its blue cover now.
More than any other book, Silver Snaffles was able to transport me away to an imaginary world. In the story, a young girl called Jenny talks to Tattles her pony every day (just as I talked to Flora). Then, one wonderful day, Tattles answers her. He nods his head towards the hay rack and says: “Through the Dark Corner, and the password is Silver Snaffles.” Thus Jenny is transported into an exciting world of talking ponies. Oh, how I longed for Flora to be part of that world too and to one day talk to me.
I have never been able to pass by an old wardrobe – even now I am a boring grown-up – without poking my head inside to press my hands against the back wall … just in case there is no back and this is Lucy’s wardrobe with Narnia just a footstep away. After reading Mary Norton’s brilliant Borrowers books (especially The Borrowers Afield where the miniature folk come to live in the countryside), I searched under every stone on our farm in case the extraordinary tiny people had found their way to Devon. But, above all, I spent my summer days pressing the wall of Flora’s stable and whispering “Silver Snaffles!” in the tingly hope that the wall would open and we would gallop away across wild moors to meet Tattles and the other talking ponies.
The wall never did open – but I don’t think that really mattered. The fun was in the wish … the imagining. It was certainly in those long holidays talking to Flora that I first became a storyteller (shamelessly hijacking plots from Primrose Cumming in the same way Mary Norton’s little people would “borrow” a safety pin to use for their own inventions). I was – and still am –dyslexic, so writing words down has never been easy; but talking out loud, telling stories to Flora, was a wonderful way to let my ideas flow. So thank you, Primrose Cumming. Thank you, Tattles. Above all, thank you, Flora. Without you I might never have been able to escape from real life into my imagination. Without you, I may never have become a writer.
Lou Kuenzler was brought up on Dartmoor and moved to Northern Ireland to study theatre. She went on to work as a theatre director, drama lecturer and workshop leader. Lou now lives in London with her husband and their two children. She’s the author of, amongst others, the brilliant Bella Broomstick series. Find out more on her website and tweet her at @LouKuenzler.
