Child-Writer Extraordinaire Talk To WOMAN.ca

It takes a lot of innovation, creativity, and thick skin to find success as a children’s author, and Carolyn Robinson has just that.

WOMAN.ca had the opportunity to chat with Carolyn Robinson, author of the new childrens' series The Adventures of Moxie and Chicken.

Robinson created the idea based on her family’s dog, Moxie, and Moxie’s stuffed chicken. As a parent, she's found that there were not enough books available that worked to enrich the lives children, and so she used Moxie to sneak in “hidden vegetables”- the good stuff, good lessons, in a way that doesn't seem preachy.

Robinson explains that “you can’t tell them how to act, so this is how you can show kids how to act.” Moxie and her stuffed chicken go on adventures, but Moxie never forgets to be kind and courteous, always saying please and thank you. “Manners are very important. A lot of kids are losing that. They were ground into us as children, but they seem to be lacking in so many kids these days. These kids need to learn how to respect each other and honour each other, and be happy for what everyone has.”

Her idea to base a series on her dog developed because of her children. It began when her children would playfully ask about the dog's day, "so [she] started to give life to the dog’s stories.”

Of course it helps that she has always been a bit of a story teller, and she says “it was so fun to take the kids on a journey, and making them believe. Children look at Moxie and see the book and actually believe the dog went on the adventure.”

What helps to further play into the magic of Moxie, Robinson tells me, is the website (www.moxiethedog.com). She uses the online forum to talk about different things that are affecting children, like bullying. “Moxie the dog talks about the issues,” she says “to show kids they are not alone”.
However it wasn’t always so certain for the author, as she originally kept her short stories private. Luckily she finally decided to seek publication after the encouragement of her boyfriend. Robinson was nervous and terrified of failure, but he gave her the best advice she’s ever received. He told her “to build a very thick skin and keep going” she explained, “He said the rejections will come but you have to keep going.”

Unfortunately, not everyone whose path she crossed was so encouraging. Robinson tells me of the worst advice she has ever been given “I think it was, you are a fine arts student, how on earth would you know how to write. Someone told me that since I didn’t study it in school I wouldn’t know how to do it.” Thankfully that piece of negativity did not discourage her. She realised “there are so many layers to everybody, and if you want something bad enough, you put your heart and soul into it.”

And put her heart and soul into it she did. Using inspirations from her hero Robert Munsch, her love for Clifford (the big red dog) and her hope to emulate the good messages in the Franklin books, Robinson created a series that she believes in. She explains that parents should read her books to their kids for a number of reasons. For starters, “because we support a good cause, part of the proceeds go to Sick Kids and Kids Help Phone”. Additionally, one of the main lessons the books aim to teach children is the importance of giving back. They are aiming to have Moxie certified through the St. John Ambulance to eventually work with children.

This lesson is what Moxie is about, “teaching children that they need to start giving back in their communities”. And here she told me something I loved, “there are a million different points of views in the world, and everyone is worth a glance.”
 
This belief in the importance of giving back goes beyond her books. Four years ago she founded the “Winter Wears” program. As Robinson explained that program, “it was started by myself. I was talking to someone working in a school in Toronto and, after watching students coming to school in the winter just wearing sweaters, I felt it was so easy for me to recycle snowsuits from me and my friends to give the students something to wear. It is an amazing feeling. I was very emotional when my girlfriend called me telling me she was watching someone play in the snow for the first time because she never had a snowsuit before.”

Clearly, there are excellent values making their way into The Adventures of Moxie and Chicken. What is her favourite part about being a childrens' author? “I just love to make children smile, laugh and giggle. There is something so magical about it, seeing them believe. It is heart warming to see them fall into the magic of it”. She also finds similar gratification being a published female Canadian author. Telling me she “feels very accomplished. Canadian children’s writing is a very difficult nut to crack; to be able to crack into that and be able to get on the shelves is gratifying. And I am happy to be Canadian. Canadians are breaking ground, and women are breaking ground.”

Robinson is clearly breaking ground with one book published (Moxie’s First Birthday) and the entire series of The Adventures of Moxie and Chicken will be available through her website, the publisher or online through Chapters/Indigo shortly. They have ones for various holidays, time traveling, and even one entitled Charlie the OCD dog (not yet gone to publication) to help a family friend deal with OCD. So which of the bunch is her favourite? “Moxie meeting the Easter bunny”, she says “it’s not on shelves yet, but it got the most giggles from the kids.”

After learning all about Carolyn Robinson and Moxie the dog, I had to ask what her favourite book was as a child. Her answer was Where The Wild Things Are, because of its ability to pull her in and make her believe that she could go into the woods and find something like that.  It is this magical ability that makes Moxie so special too. She said she has even found her son telling the dog his deepest secrets, believing that Moxie will answer back.  Here is to hoping that Moxie has that effect on all children.

Vanessa Matyas
		About the author:
		After finishing her Masters in Communications and New Media from McMaster University this August, Vanessa Matyas jumped on a plane to California in search of some adventure.  The self proclaimed pop culture junkie was in heaven, enjoying all the sights, sounds and weather of Los Angeles. After returning to Toronto she decided to put her passion for all things entertainment to good use, which led her here to WOMAN.CA.
	Read More >>