Video transcript
NSW Premier's Reading Challenge 2025 - SWF author interview (primary) - 01. Katrina Nannestad

[intro music]

AMREEN: Hi, my name is Amreen and I'm from Caddies Creek Public School. I'm here today on Cammeraygal land at The Concourse at Chatswood as a part of the Sydney Writers' Festival Primary Schools Day. I'm so excited to be interviewing Katrina Nannestad for the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge. Hi, Katrina, how are you today?

[laughter]

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Hi. It's lovely to be here. Thank you.

AMREEN: I have many questions I want to ask you, but I think I'll start with this one. The first book of yours I ever read was 'Lottie Perkins, Movie Star' when I was just 7, and I really enjoyed the humour and how easily I could relate to it. Who inspired the character Lottie?

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Oh, I think Lottie was a little bit inspired by me as a child. When I was little, I had big dreams, and I think my dreams were changing all the time about what I wanted to be when I grew up. So when I was really little, I seriously wanted to be a superhero. And then I wanted to be a hairdresser, but I cut all my doll's hair and they all ended up bald with a little ring of spiky hair around it.

So I thought, maybe hairdressing is not for me. And then I wanted to be a school teacher and an actor. And I thought, oh, that's pretty typical of a lot of kids. So I like the idea of Lottie being this little girl who had these big dreams about what she would be, but actually achieve her dreams with the help of her lovely, supportive friend Sam. So it's a little bit inspired by my own childhood, I suppose, and what I see in other children.

AMREEN: That's really lovely because when you were a child-- when I was a bit more younger than I am now, I wanted to be a teacher. No, I want to be a scientist. And now I want to be an author.

KATRINA NANNESTAD: And there are endless possibilities. When you're little, everything feels possible, doesn't it, you know? And I think as you get older, you narrow down your interests and your strengths and that. But when you're little, you really believe you can be anything. And that's what Lottie does. She believes it and she lives it out, and it was fun to write because she has a degree of success with all of her dreams.

AMREEN: My second question for you is, you have written so many books across a lot of different genres. 'The Travelling Bookshop' series has fantasy. 'The Freja Peachtree' books have mystery. And a lot of your recent books for middle grade readers are historical fiction. So can I ask, what is your favourite genre to write and which one do you find the hardest to write?

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Oh, that is a really good question. I probably don't have a favourite genre. I write what I really enjoy writing, and I think that's really important as a writer. I think you'll do your best writing when you're writing something that excites you.

I like the mix. I really enjoy writing humour. I love reading humour and I love writing it. And whether it's humour with action or mystery or fantasy, I get a lot of fun out of doing that. And I laugh a lot while I'm writing. I laugh at my own jokes, which might be a little bit self-indulgent, but I have a lot of fun.

But I really also love writing historical fiction, which is quite heavy to write because I do a lot of research, and you read true stories that are often very sad. But I love that because I'm always learning new things. I'm always seeing new perspectives on things. And I love narrowing down a big moment in history to one or 2 characters' personal experience. So I find that really challenging but really a hard task.

So the mix of writing those lighter adventure, mystery, humour sort of books and the heavier historical fiction is a lovely mix in my writing life. So I do the historical fiction, and then when I'm feeling, oh, that was a big effort and a bit sad at times, then I go on to writing something light and funny. So I like it all. I enjoy it all.

And I think I would probably say that the historical fiction is the hardest thing to write. And that's probably because I'm very much aware that when I'm sharing these stories, I'm writing stories about things that have happened to real people. And I want to make sure that I'm completely respectful of their experiences and their hardships, but at the same time, I want to make the stories accessible for young readers like you. So that's a bit of a balancing act for me, but one that I really enjoy. But it's definitely harder to write than the lighter books that I write.

AMREEN: Actually at school, we did read, I think, an article of yours. You wrote about 'Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief', how you had to plan out your stories, how you had to think carefully, do some research. And you wrote something about how emotional you felt and how you wanted to show what people had to go through, through war times.

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Yes. Yes. And I think that's one thing that I try to do when I'm writing, is to try to bring out that thing, that everyone suffers in wartime and it is so sad. And no matter what side people are on, people suffer when there's war and conflict in the world. And I want my readers to understand that, as well, and maybe become more compassionate of other people and what they've gone through in their life.

AMREEN: My other question for you is, my grade is studying 'Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief' this term, and my whole class is like overjoyed that I'm going to be interviewing you.

[laughter]

KATRINA NANNESTAD: That's really lovely.

AMREEN: Could you please give me a brief summary of what the book is about and any important things to keep in mind when we're studying it?

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Yeah. The story is about a little boy called Sasha. He's in Russia and he loses everything when the German army marches into his village. And he loses his family, his friends, his school, his community, his home. He's the only survivor of what happens in his village. And he runs away and escapes into the forest, and he finds his way to a Red Army unit and they take him in. They give him a little uniform and they give him non-combat duties, and he serves with them throughout the war.

He wants to fight and get revenge for what has been done to his family, but the major of his unit says, you're a child, you're not going to fight. And so he sets out to help his fellow soldiers in the only way that he can, which is through acts of service and acts of kindness. And he's been brought up with kindness and love in his home and in his community, and so that's how he treats other people.

And so we see him soften the hearts of these battle-hardened soldiers and make their lives better and the lives of all people around him better. Even in the midst of this horrid war, he softens hearts and brings some joy and some light just because he is kind. He commits one small act of kindness after another and changes his world that way, rather than changing it with a gun.

AMREEN: That is a beautiful way through wartime, someone bringing joy to others, giving them hope. It's just something you don't see every day.

KATRINA NANNESTAD: No. But when I was writing the story, I'd actually been inspired by true stories about child soldiers, and one in particular called Sergei Aleshkov, who was a tiny, little child soldier in the Red Army. And I thought, I want to write about a child soldier and show why they ended up in the army, these children, and what happened to them, but I didn't want to glorify war or make it sound like I thought it was a good thing for a child to be a soldier.

And so I thought, well, maybe my child can be this little boy who's changing the world through kindness in the midst of this terrible war. And I was thinking, is that unrealistic? But in my research, I read the most beautiful stories of people in really harsh circumstances who, regardless of what had been done to them and what was going on around them, were still able to show love and kindness and humour and grace, even to their enemy.

And I thought, this is OK. This is realistic. And I even read stories of other little soldiers who were shown such kindness by the soldiers in their unit that they were taken in to. And so I thought, I'm reading about this in real life. It's OK for me to express that in my character and my story because it really does happen.

And I think they're the stories of hope in wartime-- the people who, regardless of the horrors and the cruelties, maintain their humanity and their kindness and live that out, even in just a small way, just making that small choice to commit small acts of kindness and love that gives us our faith in humanity and keeps things nice in their part of the world.

AMREEN: Just for you giving a brief summary of that, I already feel so keen to continue reading.

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Oh that's lovely. That's lovely. I hope you really enjoy it, and you'll have to have to pass on my regards to your class, too.

AMREEN: Can I ask, what was it that inspired you to become an author?

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Oh, you know, I've listened to lots of authors talk, and often they say they always wanted to be an author, and they wrote and read a lot when they were little. I wasn't that kind of child. I didn't even really like books when I was your age. I was shown some incredibly boring books. I loved reading comics.

But when I was in my teenage years, I made my way to some books at last that I loved, 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit', and then some war stories, interestingly enough. And at last I thought, oh, this is really exciting. I can see what the fuss is about stories and books now.

But what really I think changed my mind was that in Year 11 and 12, I had an amazing teacher for English. Her name was Janelle Jones. And she was passionate about literature, and she loved books and reading and writing and plays and poems. And she really opened my eyes to the power of words and the power of stories, so much so that up until that point, I'd been more a math/science student at school, but I decided I would go on to university and study literature.

I didn't think of becoming an author at that stage even. I became a school teacher. But my favourite time of every day was always when I'd draw my class together and share a book with them. And I loved the magic of story to take us all from the classroom, all together into this whole new world. And the same thing happened when I had my own children. My favourite part of the day was when we'd snuggle up together with a pile of picture books.

And together we'd escape from the house into this world of the story, and that world of the story would spill out into our day-to-day play and talk. And I think it was around that time, when my children were little, I thought, I really want to be part of creating this story magic myself. And that's when I really got inspired to set out to become an author and do my best to make that happen.

AMREEN: Actually, it kind of reflects on what you said before, anything is possible. You can change your mind at any stage. When you're young, you want to be a scientist, then you want to be that.

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Yeah. And even as adults, we do that. And adults change careers and different things happen that inspire us along the way. I think it was just that I just love books and the magic of story to take us somewhere else and to teach us and inspire us and do all those wonderful things that inspired me to become an author.

AMREEN: So just to wrap it up, my last question--

[laughter]

--would be, let's imagine a young student has never read any of your books. Which of your many beautiful stories would you recommend they try first?

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Oh, I think if you're a younger reader, 'Mim and the Baffling Bully', the first of 'The Travelling Bookshop' series is a lot of fun. There's a lot of laughs, a bit of adventure. I think that would be a really fun one to start with.

If you're maybe an older student, Grade 5 or 6, I think 'We Are Wolves' would be a really good one to start with. It's a war story, but it's probably the more gentle of my war stories. We follow these 3 siblings as they get separated from their family towards the end of the war and follow their journey as they struggle to survive on their own. I think that would be an exciting story for maybe Grade 5--6 children to start with.

AMREEN: Thank you so much for letting me interview you today, Katrina. It's been amazing talking with you. I hope everyone out there today enjoys reading your novels as much as I did while they worked to complete the PRC Reading Challenge.

KATRINA NANNESTAD: Thank you. Thank you for sharing with me today.