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Frances Mackay: The Teacher Who Writes Books Kids Love!

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Hi, everyone! It’s Noah here again. Guess what? I got to interview an awesome author who writes fun books for kids and teachers. Her name is Frances Mackay, and she told me all about her stories, her favorite characters, and even some tips for writing my own! Here’s our conversation.

When you were a kid, did you dream about becoming a teacher or writing books, or something else completely?

I always wanted to become a teacher when I was in school but after years of exams and studying, I thought maybe I didn’t want to go on to more education. However, I received a teaching scholarship – and I’m so glad I followed that career path as I absolutely loved teaching and spent 20 years in Australian and UK classrooms. When I was in Primary School, I had an amazing teacher called Mr Shaw who encouraged me to write and I made little books for the classroom library. Years later, as a teacher, one of the best things I did with children was to show them how to create books. We made books in the shape of things, bound books, pop-ups and concertina books and I discovered that they actual creating of the book design itself seemed to improve the children’s writing too – they wanted a ‘good’ story to go in the book they had made. In the UK I was seconded for a year to work in schools to help other teachers teach writing – and this was such a rewarding experience. When I was still teaching, I started to write articles for Scholastic school magazines and Scholastic then commissioned me to write lots of books. I now have over 90 educational books published by many publishers.

What’s it like knowing that teachers all over the world use the books you wrote to help kids learn?

Baby Worries

It’s a privilege to know that perhaps, in a very small way, I am contributing to helping teachers teach and children learn. Learning should be fun and intriguing and that’s what I aim to do with my books. I have books that are used by teachers in Australia, UK and Pakistan – and it’s amazing to think that my work is hared across the world.

How does it feel like to win a big book award?

by Worries

The idea for the story of Baby Worries came from my nephew’s newborn baby son. Every time he came along to a family gathering, he had this very quizzical, worried look on his face as if he was thinking ‘Who on earth are you lot?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ It made me laugh to wonder what he might be thinking and that’s how the story was developed. Winning the Book of the Decade Award from The Wishing Shelf Book Awards was astonishing! It made me, and the illustrator Dotti Colvin, feel very proud. It made all our hard work in creating it all worthwhile.

Out of all the books you’ve written, which one do you think kids like the most, and why?

Nate's Noisy Nose

I think my latest book, Nate’s Noisy Nose, will be the kids’ favourite. It’s certainly mine! It hasn’t been out very long yet, so it will take a bit more time to tell, but it’s the amazing artwork by Dotti Colvin that will capture kids’ imagination. She has put so much detail into each drawing – there’s so much to see each time you read it. Dotti made the main characters, Nate and Rascal come alive – and I’m hoping kids will fall in love with them. It’s a silly story, yes, but it’s fun because it’s designed to be interactive where the kids shout out the sounds that Nate’s nose makes. It’s not a quiet bedtime story!

Nate’s Noisy Nose sounds hilarious! Did you come up with that idea because something funny like that happened to you?

To be honest, I don’t know where the idea came from! I keep a note book beside my bed and every time I think of a book idea, I write it down so I can develop it more later. My husband is a legendary snorer, so I know how hard it is to sleep when someone is making a noise! I think this may have helped me understand how it might be for Nate’s family trying to cope with the problem. I love to write books that make readers laugh – so the sillier the ideas in the story the better. There’s lots of books out there about serious topics – so I think there should be more stories that are just fun to read.

If I wanted to write my own story, what’s the first thing you’d tell me to do?

Jot down lots of ideas first. It could be just words or random sentences or ideas about what a character might look like or how that character might behave. Then leave it for a while and come back to it – does a story idea come to you from reading it again? Then just write! Keep writing, don’t worry about the spelling etc, just get the words down and as you write ideas will come to you – some will be good ideas and others not so good! After you have a draft, you can keep re-working it until you have something you are proud of.

Was it hard to go from being a teacher in a classroom to making books for kids and teachers?

No, I’ve always liked writing so I really enjoyed writing articles for the Scholastic magazines. It helped me developed a style that came in useful for writing books for teachers. When the pandemic hit and I had to stay home more, I decided to have a go at writing children’s books and this was quite tricky because writing for children is a lot different to writing for teachers. So, I did lots of courses and read lots of children’s books and this helped me to develop a different style of writing.

What’s the coolest or funniest thing a kid has ever said to you during one of your school visits?

Sadly, I am immunosuppressed due to medications I take and I am unable to go into schools to do visits. Hopefully I may be able to in the future. I have done a couple of virtual school visits and I remember one kid saying to me ‘You’re just like a teacher!’ I haven’t worked out yet if it was a compliment or not – lol!

When you’re writing activity books, how do you make them fun so kids don’t feel like they’re just doing homework?

Frances Mackay

That is a great question because what might interest one child may not interest another, so I try to make the activities as varied as I possibly can. I had my own educational publishing company in the UK for 10 years and a feature of our activities was making the same task at three levels of ability – this meant that children of different ages and abilities could all do the same task. It’s important for the tasks to be challenging but not too difficult or too easy! The fun part comes in with the illustrations and the type of task. It’s fun to design a new set of clothes for a character or to draw a response to a question rather than always writing an answer.

If you could go back in time and give yourself advice when you were just starting to write, what would it be?

I think I would do some writing courses to learn different techniques and styles, and have my writing critiqued so I can learn how to improve it. Writers work in isolation so it can be a very lonely job. Meeting other authors online and in person has greatly helped me in all sorts of ways to grow as an author – so if I was starting all over again, I would try and immerse myself in writing opportunities, festivals and groups.

Do you want to know more about Frances Mackay?

Frances Mackay

Here are some of her links:

(Credits for all interview photos: Frances Mackay)

Related

Nate’s Noisy Nose by Frances Mackay

A message from Noah: Reading Nate’s Noisy Nose is like blowing into a whoopee cushion—it’s hilarious, surprising, and you’ll want to do it again and again! If you like books that make you laugh out loud, this one’s a total winner.

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Do you want to know my story, too?

Noah's Quest by Sev

Did you know that before the Noah’s Quest and Friends Fave Book Award, the blog, or even the awards program, there was a book all about me? Yup, I’m the main character in an awesome story by Sev Emanuel Pretila! If you’re curious about how it all began and want to read my adventure, you’ve got to check it out. You’ll love it—I pinky promise! Adventure is waiting! Visit the About the Book page to get started.

– Noah

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