Friday, April 13, 2018

The Origins of Snickety Dickety Doo l Danica-Lea Larcombe @danicalea

The Origins of Snickety Dickety Doo

I was on holiday on my own in Broome, Western Australia. I had left an old life overseas and I was excited about starting a brand new chapter. Sitting at a café overlooking the beach one day I suddenly got inspired to write. This was not going to be a book like my previous travel narratives taken from travel diaries. I had to use my imagination which was an exciting thought.

Three separate concepts were brought into the book series. The first was my family and my experiences growing up as a child in New Zealand. The second was a selection of planet character drawings I had done many years before and not known what to do with. The third was the extensive amount of travelling I had done to many different countries.

How was I to merge these together? First I had to find three children that would represent the ‘cast’, then I had to morph the planet characters into bubbles that would transport the children. The rest was purely up to my imagination as to where the bubbles would take the children and what adventures they would have, and that was the most satisfying part for me.

You can probably tell that I grew up with Enid Blyton’s Faraway books, just by reading that there is a secret box and a secret password ‘Snickety Dickety Doo’. They also have to be quite secretive about their adventures, especially to their parents, and they must learn how to get along with their siblings in order to manage different cultures and escape from perilous incidents.

Unintentionally the children learn about different cultures, currencies, customs and landscapes while they are also learning about the different astrological planets. Each planet has its own character in relation to astrology.

About the Author

Danica-Lea Larcombe has a B.Sc (Environmental Health), a Grad.Dip in Education and has taken courses in Journalism, Travel Writing, and Photography. She is currently undertaking a thesis in Biodiversity and Human Health, and lives with her Japanese Spitz Bella.

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About the Book:

Title: SNICKETY DICKETY DOO
Author: Danica-Lea Larcombe
Publisher: Blurb
Pages: 90
Genre: Children’s Fiction

BOOK BLURB:

George, Fiona and Marni find a tin of bubbles, not just any ordinary bubbles but planets. The planets shrink the children and take them to faraway lands. The children have many exciting adventures and try not to let their secret be discovered. They learn about different cultures, currencies and languages, and are inspired at school.

In Series Two, George, Marni and Fiona continue their adventures around the world in the planet bubbles. They narrowly escape being killed by some monks in Turkey, find a little companion in Paris and visit royalty in Monaco.