Kid’s Book Review: War of the Wind

– Hi Victoria, I really liked the start of the book and how it described the accident, it made me realise that it can happen to anyone and you need to treat people normally. The day before the accident Max was just like me. He didn’t become a different person by being deaf but his life changed dramatically. Were you hoping to try help change reader’s perspectives and view of how they treat people?

I think empathy is hugely important, and learning to see yourself in someone’s shoes is a big part of what stories are about. I was definitely hoping to change reader’s perspectives in this book: by identifying with Max, they see the world through his eyes. Even though Max gets annoyed by people making assumptions about him because he’s deaf, Max himself is guilty of underestimating the abilities of other pupils in his additional support needs class – in particular Beanie and David. He assumes that David is less intelligent because he can’t talk, uses a wheelchair, and struggles to control his limb movements, but then Max discovers that David is actually the smartest boy in the class. The novel is written in the first person from Max’s point of view, so the reader goes on a journey with him as he learns about his own misconceptions, and realises that he has underestimated Beanie and David in precisely the same way that people underestimate him. Hopefully this will help readers to examine their own misconceptions about children with additional support needs, and to be less quick to make assumptions.

– Did you choose wind turbines deliberately to be the source of the sinister activity as normally people associate them with being good and eco-friendly? I’ve not come across them used before in a novel so was interested why you picked them?

War of the Wind was actually my mother’s idea. I was having dinner with her one night, when she said out of the blue, “Oh, I came up with an idea for a book for you today – it’s about wind turbines sending out secret signals, and it’s called War of the Wind.” She hadn’t developed the idea any further than that, but I loved the concept, and it planted the seed that grew into the final novel. Wind turbines had always seemed a little spooky to me, and reminded me of the TV show and film adaptations I’d seen of The Tripods and War of the Worlds when I was a child. Every time I saw wind turbines on the horizon after that, I thought about what they might be ‘whispering’ to us, and what those secrets signals might be used for.- Did you choose wind turbines deliberately to be the source of the sinister activity as normally people associate them with being good and eco-friendly? I’ve not come across them used before in a novel so was interested why you picked them?
War of the Wind was actually my mother’s idea. I was having dinner with her one night, when she said out of the blue, “Oh, I came up with an idea for a book for you today – it’s about wind turbines sending out secret signals, and it’s called War of the Wind.” She hadn’t developed the idea any further than that, but I loved the concept, and it planted the seed that grew into the final novel. Wind turbines had always seemed a little spooky to me, and reminded me of the TV show and film adaptations I’d seen of The Tripods and War of the Worlds when I was a child. Every time I saw wind turbines on the horizon after that, I thought about what they might be ‘whispering’ to us, and what those secrets signals might be used for.

– I am enjoying GCSE English so have you got tips for how you bring your characters to life so successfully. When you write are the characters based on real people you have met?

Some of the characters are a mixture of people I’ve met, and some characters are based on my own thoughts and experiences. Narrative voice is really important in writing, and it’s important it sounds authentic. If you keep a diary, that can help you to express yourself, and it’s really good practise for when you want to write a passage in the first person where a character is explaining their own thoughts and feelings. For third person books, try to keep each character’s ‘voice’ – the way they express themselves and the things they talk about – distinct and unique. Ideally, your reader should be able to read out a sentence by one of your main characters, and guess who said it without looking at the name – that’s the real test of whether your character is speaking authentically.

– Did you decide on your characters before the plot or your plot first?

A bit of both. When I write a book I usually have a theme – in this case wind turbines and a secret experiment, but character voice is really important to me, so I never start writing until I can ‘hear’ the main character’s voice in my head, and I can imagine them telling the story. I often use the six-part ‘story arc’ for plotting out my stories – opening, problem/conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution – as this can help me to shape the story, and to figure out how to move the story forward f I get stuck.

– Why were your adult characters more stereotyped than your young characters? Like the mum busy with the new baby and the Dad out fishing. Plus the use of the typical ruthless scientist in the character Doctor Ashwood?  I don’t think authors always make adult characters complex enough.

Haha! That’s a very good question! In this story I think it’s partly to do with the fact that there are some characters I want to focus on – for example Max and his friends, and I don’t want to draw too much attention to the other characters by making them so complex that I have to spend time (and word count) discussing them in detail. I suppose it’s a little bit like a painting – if everything in the painting is done in very fine detail, it can be difficult for the viewer to know what to look at, but if there’s a plainer background, then the main figures will stand out better, and these will draw the viewer’s attention.

– Will you consider getting Max, Erin, Beanie and David back together for a sequel? 

 Definitely! I have lots of sequel ideas for more spooky and dangerous things happening on Scragness Island! Watch this space…

I definitely will! Thank you for answering my questions

By Jimmy, aged 14 years, whose review who can read if you scroll down this post.