The girl’s hands came up to the bars and she gripped them tightly. She was speaking to Boy with her eyes, pleading for help.

The girl’s hands came up to the bars and she gripped them tightly. She was speaking to Boy with her eyes, pleading for help. Then a strange and beautiful sound came from her throat, rising and falling like the wind. Boy had never heard anything like it. And yet it was familiar.

Oriole’s beloved Wishbird is dying and she must leave the Forest to save him. But in the City of Soulless there is danger everywhere. Can Oriole and Boy save Soulless and the Wishbird, or will the city’s darkness prove too great even for magic?

By the award-winning author of A Ghost in My Suitcase.

Published by Penguin Books Australia

Photos from the launch and Cath Crowley’s beautiful launch speech.

Imagine a world without music.

Imagine if all the singers and musicians disappeared, never to be seen again. Music is outlawed. Even birds are killed because they sing. And because birds live in forests then the forests all around are burnt to stumps.

Music is an integral part of human existence. Every culture in the world makes music. Without it, the soul dies.

This is at the heart of The Wishbird.

THE INSPIRATION

The idea for The Wishbird goes way back – to a time before I was born. The year is 1935. My mother is eleven years old, attending Rathdowne Street Primary School in Melbourne.

This is a photo of my mum at Rathdowne Street State School.

Can you pick out which one she is?

One day she finds two books tucked away in a cupboard in her classroom. The books are Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque, a fairytale about a water spirit, who marries a knight to gain a soul. The other is Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson.

Both books are written for adults but the stories so captivate her that they awaken a life long love of books.

As an adult my mother scoured Melbourne for a copy of Green Mansions. Only after years of searching did she finally find it in a second hand bookshop.

I was fourteen when I first read Green Mansions and the story about a forest dwelling girl with a beautiful bird-like voice has haunted me ever since. I did not know,then, that I would be a writer and that one day this book would be the seed for one of my own books.

But what a strange and wondrous thing life is. Something that you think is unimportant can one day grow into a mighty forest.

Below are some of the initial sketches I did while thinking about the story. In a Creative Journaling workshop conducted by YA author Simmone Howell and poet Lisa D’Onofrio I created a story map.

Then, when I was visiting my daughter last year in New York, I used a visual diary to capture some of my first image ideas. Drawing is a great way to discover your story.

As you can see, I’ve drawn Oriole in modern day clothing with a dog. Both these things changed as I wrote the book.

BACKGROUND

There are many references in China to the oriole bird. It is famed in China for its beautiful appearance and song. The Chinese character consists of li meaning beautiful and niao meaning bird. During the Ming Dynasty the oriole was depicted on the front of the gowns of high-ranking court officials.

There are a few Chinese sayings with the word oriole in them –

ying ge yan wu – literal meaning ‘orioles sing and swallows dart’. True meaning – a scene of peace, peaceful, prosperous.

ying sheng yan yu – literal meaning ‘trill of an oriole, song of a swallow’. True meaning – the sweet delicate voice of a woman.

In the Summer Palace outside Beijing, there is the Oriole Listening Hall because the ancients liked to compare beautiful music to the singing of orioles.

Here is a Chinese children’s song that you might like to learn. It’s called

The Snail and the Orioles.

A’men A’qian yi ke putao shu,

In front by the door there’s an old grape vine,

A’nen A’nen lu de gang faya.

Just sprouting green with its leaves so fine.

Woniu beizhe na zhongzhong de ke ya,

The snail on its back has a hard heavy shell yes,

Yi bu yi bu de wang shang pa.

But up the vine it goes nonetheless.

A’shu a’shang liang zhi huangliniao,

Two little birds sit up in a tree,

A’xi a’xi ha ha zai xiao ta.

And laugh at poor snail haha heeheehee.

Putao chengshu hai zao de hen na,

Those grapes won’t be ripe for a long long time so

Xianzai shang lai gan shenme?

Why climb now? We would like to know!

A’huang a’huang li’er buyao xiao,

Oriole Birds, don’t you laugh at me,

Deng wo pa shang ta jiu chengshouliao.

By the time I get there, ripe they’ll be!

(song translated and adapted by S. Clavey)

HOOPOE BIRDS

The wish bird is a hoopoe bird. I chose this bird not only because it is beautiful and has a regal appearance but also because it appears in many cultures throughout the world and in ancient times.

Here are just a few examples –

*Hoopoe birds were depicted on the walls of tombs and temples in Ancient Egypt as they were considered sacred.

* The Hoopoe featured in Greek mythology. He is the king of the birds in the Ancient Greek comedy The Birds by Aristophanes.

* In Islam, the Hoopoe is associated with King Solomon who spoke with animals, ( in Arabic the Prophet Suleyman ) and he tells him of the Queen of Sheba and her magnificent land. Quran 27:20-28.

* In classical Chinese poetry, the Hoopoe is a celestial messenger often symbolising the coming of spring. It is also considered very lucky.

* In Persia, the hoopoe bird was seen as a symbol of virtue. In The Conference of the Birds, one of the central works of Sufi literature, he is the leader of the birds.

This story is my first fully illustrated novel. I drew the final illustrations in pen and ink on watercolour paper using a sewing magnifying glass to get the fine lines.

I hope you enjoy the journey of The Wishbird.

• CBCA 2014 Notable Book
• Shortlisted: Australian Book Design Awards 2014
• Shortlisted: Yabba, Kroc, Koala Awards 2014
• Shortlisted: Crystal Kite Award 2014