Step into a world of Dino stories...

Gabby Dawnay very kindly took the time to answer my questions about her latest book, published with Magic Cat, 5 Minute Dinosaurs Stories is an addictive read! I hope my questions and Gabby's answers provide plenty of insight about what to expect and encourage you too to find a copy of the book!

What for you is the appeal of writing 5-minute stories and what do you think is the appeal for the reader? With ‘5 Minute Stories’ you know what you’re getting - and if you know how long each story takes to read, you can judge how many to fit in before bedtime - or whenever you read! It’s helpful for grown-ups, too, because ‘just one more story’ really is just 5 minutes long…

How do you judge what content to include and do you time reading the story to make sure you have it about right in terms of length? I do loads of research and make lots of notes to get a good solid base of facts. These facts then inspire the story itself, which often begins with a rough idea and any immediate verses that pop into my head, then the shape of each non-fiction narrative will start to reveal itself. And because I’m writing a group of nine stories, each one to fit together in a progression so there’s a sense of moving through time. The stories are all connected by certain details, visuals, repeated words and narrative threads - like the poor T. Rex who appears in 3 of these stories (including his own) but just can’t seem to catch a break! As this is the 5th book in the series, I know how many words go into making every 5-minute story - but I still read them through to make sure they work!

The stories are a mix of fact and fiction. They gently rhyme too. Can you share some of the challenges you face when creating them? I actively enjoy the restrictions this format presents - I relish the challenge of finding imaginative and inventive ways of creating rhythmic, rhyming, narrative non-fiction stories with sometimes seemingly impossible subjects! And I had to become a ‘mini-expert’ on each dinosaur - knowledge that stays in my head for about 2 weeks! Because I love words and playing with words, fitting everything together is sometimes a bit like a puzzle that needs solving. The rhyming element must always be robust and never feel ‘forced’. Sometimes, with particularly tricky dino-names, facts or features, the challenge is fitting these into the rhyme scheme. Each story must be different but connected, rooted in fact with a sprinkle of imagination. The bottom line is that the stories should flow and be fun and easy to read.

There are nine stories in this collection and yet we all know the number of dinosaurs you could choose from is almost limitless! How did you select yours? I used the Mesozoic Era as a timeline, so the first story is about the very first dinosaur (we currently know of) from Triassic, then a selection from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods that includes big and small, feathered, plated, gentle, fierce, carnivore and herbivore. There was always going to be a T. Rex in the mix - obviously!

With so many dinosaur books available to readers how do you set about making sure you write one that stands out? There are certainly thousands of dinosaur books out there… But how many of them are rhyming, non-fiction, narrative stories with hilariously imaginative-yet-accurate illustrations - and a foil-detailed cover…? Also, the aim was to make these tales engaging, fact-packed (and fact-checked), easy to read and full of humour. Hopefully that’s enough to make this dinosaur book stand out from the crowd!

How do you know what to research for a story as opposed to a factual account and where do you go for your research? I would research in the same way for both. But if writing a story, use the facts as inspiration for a story. Much as I’d like to find a Time Machine to take me back to the Age of the Dinosaurs, or at the very least visit my local library, the internet means I have a world of information at my fingertips! I use solid websites such as the Natural History Museum’s or Nat Geo, and always read through a selection of articles so I can cross-reference and double-check facts. For this book, a palaeontologist read over every story - and for the previous book in the series all about Space, there was an astronomer who did the fact-checking.

Are you a dinosaur fan yourself and do you have any favourites – what is the appeal to you? I’m definitely a dinosaur fan - doesn’t everyone love dinosaurs?! The appeal is that these enormous, awesome creatures walked the earth for millions of years, and millions of years before humans were even a blink in the eye of the cosmos… And the fact that they left all these clues behind in the earth and the rocks that we continue to discover - it doesn’t get much cooler than that!

Of course, the more you find out about dinosaurs - or any subject, for that matter - the more you learn and understand and enjoy them. And because I was already interested in dinosaurs, I was eager to find out more about them, particularly the obscure ones I hadn’t heard of. My favourite? It has to be the scary and mysterious Spinosaurus… (what was that enormous spiny sail for…?) And T. Rex…those teeth! And Brachiosaurus - that neck! And… I can’t choose just one!

Are you hoping that by writing this 5 Minute Stories you can encourage shared reading or simply encourage children, perhaps those who struggle to read, discover a love of books and stories? I very much hope that these stories will encourage reading - and shared reading is particularly special because it builds bonds and encourages a more interactive experience. Rhyming, rhythmic stories are also great for getting children to see shapes, join in and guess words, which can be useful for reluctant readers or those who struggle to read. Love dinosaurs but not too keen on reading? A fun book on dinosaurs might give you the reading bug!

I hope any of my books will encourage children to discover a love of books and stories because stories offer a portal into new worlds, as well as a mirror to reflect our own lives. If you have an interest in something, whatever it might be, there will be a book or story about it somewhere. You just need to find it - or write one yourself!

You combine both poetry and prose in this collection. What are the challenges you face when mixing the two formats? Is it easy to do with the dinosaurs as your topic? I try to pack as many fun facts and information as I can into each story, but if something important doesn’t make it, I can include it in the facts page at the end of each story. There’s always way too much so the tricky bit is choosing what to include! Dinosaurs as a topic was relatively straightforward as each species lends itself to a character and tale (you can imagine it was bit more complicated with Human Body or Space Stories). But as our knowledge is limited to what fossils and dino-evidence has been discovered so far - more is being discovered all the time - I had to be careful about making assumptions or being too definite about certain things. It was incredibly helpful and reassuring to have a palaeontologist read over everything to fact-check, too.

Do you find yourself drawn to the challenge of writing fictional stories about ‘real’ creatures? Why

is that? Yes, I absolutely do! I guess because I have always looked at around me at the natural world for inspiration, imagining there’s a story behind everything, which of course there really is. You only have to watch an episode of one of David Attenborough’s shows to see how many narratives weave through the whole of nature. Rivers are alive, creatures often seem to have characters as well as characteristics, and even mountains are on a journey… Also, creating fictional stories rooted in nature and inspired by animals, makes everything much more relatable and brings children closer to this beautiful, ever-changing earth we all share.

FYI, There are five ‘5 Minute Stories’ in the series so far- Nature, Human Body, Ocean, Space and Dinosaurs - but the 6th book is coming out next year, so watch this space…! 

Gabby x