A Little About the Author:
Hélène Boudreau writes fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults. She is also a compulsive walker, a chicklet wrangler and a lover of cheese and cheap chocolate.
Her tween novel REAL MERMAIDS DON'T WEAR TOE RINGS is a 2011 Crystal Kite Member Choice Award Finalist.
Connect with Helene:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
*Interview*
I
just recently read your Real Mermaids series, where Jade (our main character)
finds out that she’s a mermaid. In such a delicate part of her life, how do you
think that you relate to her?
I was a very late bloomer so I can definitely
relate to Jade in that sense. It’s hard when you feel left behind by your peers
in a physical and/or emotional sense. Jade has even bigger problems, though, in
that she’s now stuck with a shiny new tail.
My own daughters are at the precipice of
entering those uncertain years of raging hormones and topsy-turvy emotions. I
really wanted to write a fun story for them (and girls like them) to ease them
into the land of zits, training bras and smelly armpits. The upside being
that—no matter how hard puberty might get—at least they don’t have TAILS!
At
first, Jade and Luke’s relationship is just so awkward and sweet. How did you
make it feel authentic?
I’m glad you think their relationship rings
true. When I was first ‘pursuing’ my husband it took forever for him to figure
out I was actually into him and wasn’t particularly a huge hockey fan—the arena
was just close to where he lived. I wanted to capture that same dense but
adorable quality in Jade. I think obliviousness is a charming quality. ;-)
I
remember loving Jade’s attitude and her spunk. Did you base her off of an
acquaintance?
Jade is not based on anyone in particular
but I like to think she’s a bit like me except that I would need a full 24
hours of deep thinking to come up with some of the things she thinks or says. Actually,
that’s probably why I stare at my computer screen a lot when I’m writing these
books!
Facebook
or Twitter?
Definitely Facebook! Twitter is too fast-moving
for me and once something disappears from my stream, it’s like it’s gone
forever. I like Facebook because it’s a lot more visual and appeals to my sense
of order. So much of my life gets planned on Facebook. This week, I organized a
lunch with a bunch of friends, shared cute music videos with my sister, and
tracked my walking progress with my walking buddies! That said—it is really distracting.
I
just recently became a big reader of MG as a genre-- and I feel like there’s a
pressure to always have an adventure. How do you feel about that?
The middle grade age (from 9-12) is a time
when kids’ worlds open up in exciting but sometimes scary ways. They’re given
more responsibilities and freedoms and their stratospheres expand
exponentially. At the same time, our society has become sometimes quite protective
(sometimes for good reasons) so books are a way for young people to explore new
worlds, characters, and situations they may not encounter in real life. And
yes, those themes can definitely have an adventurous tone to them.
Chocolate
or Vanilla?
Hm. Lemon? I mean, I like both chocolate
and vanilla but for baked goods I’m a huge lemon fan.
In a
town that’s full of mer-transfers, Jade fits in with all of her quirks. Was the
mermaid town just a random idea, or was it your intention from the beginning?
Jade’s town of Port Toulouse is actually
based on a town called St. Peter’s near where I grew up. It has a boat canal,
which connects the Atlantic Ocean to a fresh water lake just like in the book.
My childhood village also had so many interesting characters at the local
wharf, the bingo hall, or the post office—it was easy to draw inspiration from
them!
What
do you like to read when you're not writing? Feel free to name drop! (:
I’m loving Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s
illustrative work in I’m Bored and am
excited to see her new book with Michael Ian Black called Naked. For middle grade, Karen Rivers’ The Encyclopedia of Me is a HUGE hit in this house.
What
do you have in store for us after the Real Mermaids series?
I’m actually working on the fourth book in
the Real Mermaids series at the
moment. It’s called Real Mermaids Don’t
Sell Sea Shells and it will be out this fall! In Book #4, Jade, Cori, Luke
and Trey and their families head off for a tropical vacation in the Bahamas.
Jade soon finds out that sun, surf and
tropical breezes are no ‘day at the beach’ because being a teenage mermaid
never takes a vacation.
After that, I’m ready to explore new
territory—possibly with a new series, a stand-alone, or a new picture book. I’m
working on all three possibilities at the moment so we shall see!
Check out her books--
