Sally Rippin:“As a children’s author,what I write is political but embedded in allegory.”Benny Capp
POLITICS
Can you be friends with people whose politics differ wildly from your own?It’s tricky. I travel a lot through America as a children’s author and in the age of Trump,I’m very careful not to talk about politics. Occasionally,when I’m having lunch with other people on the tour,it comes up. Rather than getting on my high horse,I’m more interested to see how it is that somebody[like Trump] can have reached the position he has. As a children’s author,what I write is political but embedded in allegory. Polly and Buster[characters in the eponymous series] are in a world where witches and monsters don’t mix;it’s very much a story of apartheid. Showing children through storytelling is gentler than sharing my belief system.
Have you ever had your books subjected to a moral panic over whether the content was age-appropriate?Not so much;I think I’m very tuned in to our current environment. But a couple of my books weren’t picked up by my American publisher because they depict rainbow families. I find that really sad. In Polly and Buster,there’s very clearly a beautiful gay relationship between Polly’s aunt and her teacher. If you’re a child questioning your identity in the middle of a very conservative part of America,you might see it reflected in the love between these two women.
In your bookWild Things,you write about your child,named “Sam” in the book,who has dyslexia and ADHD. Sam was often labelled “difficult” by the education system. What does our education system need to do differently?It’s important to stress that it’s the education system,not the teachers,but I feel really hopeful that schools individually are changing. The system is going to have to catch up. More and more people now are tuning in to what neurodivergency – autism,dyslexia and ADHD – looks like. Once we become more aware and trained,the more we’ll be able to recognise behaviour in the classroom and get kids support as soon as possible.
SEX
What was your sex education like?Condom on a banana. Ridiculous,really. The idea that sex is separate from relationships,mental health or how you feel about yourself … it was reduced to biology:how to avoid getting pregnant or STIs. There was nothing about how it could be a joyful,loving and connecting experience – how it could be playful,how you might want to experiment.
When adults try to publish books for young people about all that stuff,though,panic sets in.We saw that recently with Yumi Stynes’ and Melissa Kang’s book[Welcome to Sex],didn’t we?
Yes!What was your take watching that unfold?Oh,it was really sad and a little bit ridiculous,really. When my son was still in primary school,the school did such a good thing. They got people to come in and talk to the parents about what they were most scared about when they were talking about sex with their kids. The number one thing was porn. What they said is that your child is going to be so much younger than you can even guess the first time they access porn. We’re not telling young people that[porn] is a specific type of sex – that it’s not necessarily representing a natural way of connecting with people. And there are books out there that are so well researched,supportive,educational and inclusive. It’s a real shame that anybody wouldn’t be thinking that this is the best possible material we could be handing on to our kids.
Is it true you’ve recently become engaged to an old school friend that you’ve known for 30 years?[Grins and nods] The first time I got married,we lasted for a few years and had a couple of kids. I never thought I’d get married again. I’m such a strong feminist and thought,“I’m financially independent now. I own my own property. I don’t need a man.” But I had surgery last year to remove an aneurysm in my leg about a week before I was due to get on an international flight. Had I got on the flight,I wouldn’t be here talking to you. This old friend of mine looked after me. The night before I went into surgery,I was talking to the night nurse in tears saying,“Now he’s going to have to cook for me and take me to the bathroom.” She said,“That’s how you can tell if he’s a keeper.” And he totally is.
DEATH
It sounds like you had a near-death experience.Yes. It all happened so quickly. My calf started cramping up and I went to the GP. He said,“You need to get an ultrasound.” I was so lucky:I managed to get in to see a vascular surgeon straight away. Our healthcare system here is astonishing. I was operated on within two days. Apparently,I’ll go down in medical journals.
Is that consoling – or horrifying?It was consoling. This surgeon was really excited,so I figured he’s going to want to do a really good job. When I came home and had recovered from the shock of it,I just had this incredible sense of,“I’m still here.” I don’t think it’s gone away yet. It might be why I thought,“What the hell,let’s get married!”
How should we talk about death with kids?We want to protect our children,but we don’t want to isolate them from circumstances they may come across. Children’s authors get around this by personifying toys,animals and so forth. It creates a bit of a distance from the child’s actual lived experience,so it’s not so intense and overwhelming. When I separated from my kids’ dad when they were very young I used to tell them this story about the little blue train who’d stay with the red train one weekend and the green train the next. That was much easier for my three-year-old to process.
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